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I think they need to pass a federal law (so it'd apply to every school in the country) that only the parents can decide if their child can be punished for any kind of rule-breaking. For silly stuff like the above, the parents would say, "heck no" and the school would be able to do nothing, regardless of what rules they have on the book.
It's high time that parents take 100% control of the schools - what their kids are taught, how they're handled by teachers and what rules can be imposed on them.
Nothing less is acceptable, IMO.
Let's explore this a little bit.
A child is skipping classes, mouthing off to teachers, refusing to follow basic safety rules, assaulting other students. All of these things are violations of school rules and should ordinarily result in discipline. You think that in every such situation the parent should be entitled to veto any discipline the school wants to administer.
If that were done, how would any school ever maintain control over the behavior of the children in the school, maintain a learning environment, and keep the children entrusted to their care safe?
As for 100% control of what is taught in schools: parents should be able to require the schools to teach the religious doctrine of creationism? Parents should be able to require the schools to teach that the sun orbits the earth? Parents should be able to require the schools to teach that blacks are inferior and slavery was justified?
I think you may not have thought this through completely.
Henceforth, every classroom shall be provided with a hugging post (in the spirit of scratching posts for cats). Any student who feels a need to violate the laws of decency by hugging another student, and thereby put our children's future at risk by condoning sexual harassment or male hegemony, is to direct his or her affections to the hugging post.
Special provision shall be made for students presumed to be guilty of hugging themselves. There shall be provided a corner of each classroom, said corner being delineated by masking tape applied to the floor, wherein said self-hugging student shall be compelled to sit until having absolved such breach of decency.
Sexual harassment has gone waaay too far.. In the era I went to school, kids hugged each other or held hands or played with each other.. And it didn't cause everyone to be a rapist or sex offender...
Pretty soon you won't be able to hug your own relatives if this crap keeps up...
I think teachers have to right to make a judgement call, just like cops do. Just like a cop will let someone going 10 over pass him, since they're driving in a safe manner, and pull over the guy doing 3 over due to driving in a non-safe manner. They call this "officer's discretion" and I don't why this can't apply to teachers as well.
There's no such thing as "black and white" - there's *always* a judgment call to be made. I just don't see why teachers and school administrators have such a hard time with this.
While I don't want black and white rules, they make my job easier.
Let's say Sally is having a bad day.
Mary hugs Sally to cheer her up, but Sally is mad at Mary and doesn't want a hug from her so Mary gets in trouble for PDA because Sally told the teacher.
Later, Mary sees Wanda hug Sally and tells the teacher. The teacher now has to deal with the situation.
The teacher can:
A. talk to Sally about Wanda and not punish Wanda because Sally says the hug was okay, or
B. punish Wanda for PDA.
Here is where things get complicated. If the teacher does not punish Wanda, Mary is going to tell her mom that she was disciplined for the same infraction that Wanda committed but was not punished for. Mom is outraged and goes to the principal who decides not to punish Wanda either, so Mom goes to the press and posts things on facebook and twitter about the unequal treatment for her daughter, and the teacher, the principal, and the school all look bad and people are calling for their jobs.
In scenario A, I have to meet with parents, the principal, and the district to justify my decision. This eats up my planning and grading time and generally degrades the quality of my work and personal life.
In scenario B, I refer the parents and students to the handbook that says no PDA, and I enforced the rule equally to all students. Nobody gets in trouble for enforcing a rule, they just get in trouble for enforcing rules unequally.
BTW - Detention does not end up on your "Permanent Record," only a suspension would.
I can only guess about the future of a country whose educational system has degenerated to the point where hugging someone you know has become a disciplinary matter.
Why are schools punishing kids for the silliest things?
1) because everyone calls sexual assault for any form of touching these days to the point of being utterly ridiculous
2) because parents aren't disciplining their children any more. If kids get let off at school with silly things (and I'm not talking about a hug), they will escalate into major behavioural problems.
Who elects the school boards? Aliens from Omega IV or local parents? You know, the ones that attend the board meetings demanding "something" be done about ______________________.
The hugging piece, by the way, is the reaction to fears of charges claiming sexual harassment.
Parents elect the school boards, and what I've seen is once the board member is ON the school board, several things happen:
- the SB member changes attitude
- the SB member is pressured, even bullied, by other SB members that have been there longer or have special positions
- the SB member gets weathered by all the administrative policies, politics, laws, etc. and becomes like the other SB members
Result is they stop representing what the people want....and/or they quit after one term.
Citizens can vote, but they cannot control what goes on after the election.
I just read a story in the Washington Post (subscription, which is why I don't have a link) about a girl in Florida who broke the schools "PDA" rule for briefly hugging her friend who was having a bad day. She now has to serve detention and will have a permanent mark in her disciplinary record.
How many of you out think this is taking it way too far? I certainly do. It's ridiculous at what schools are doing to kids these days.
.
To me this example seems like an unusual one. It's an outlier. That's why it made the news.
Kids are the responsibility of the parents, not the schools.
That's funny. Because SO many parents think that they get to MAKE the rules. But they have NO responsibility if their kids BREAK the rules.
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