School children educating the educators
March 7th, 2008 by Republican By DefaultOur world really is turning upside down. In the Everett (WA) Herald yesterday was this piece, “Totem Middle School students protest lax rules“. Yep, it’s just what it sounds like. The subtitle:
Totem Middle Schoolers call discipline weak, unfair About 200 students walked out of classes on Wednesday, saying they often feel unsafe and want harsher penalties for drugs and fighting.
To me, this screams “wake-up call”, but apparently there aren’t too many people who hear it.
Claiming they’re sometimes afraid to go to class, they asked administrators to dole out tougher and more equitable punishments for things such as fighting, bringing alcohol to school and smoking marijuana.
“The students that have been committing these offenses have been doing them multiple times and the most they get is a two- or three-day suspension,” said eighth-grader Farrah Wolgamott, who helped organized the protest. “We don’t really feel safe because they don’t get expelled. We think people are going to bring it to the next level and bring guns and knives to school.”
Before you start thinking these are just a bunch of dumb kids stirred up about nothing, let me point out that they have a lot to fear.
Many of the protesters claim purported gangs are stirring up fear by starting fights and spray-painting gang symbols near the school.
. . .
Marysville School Board Member Darci Becker attended to back her daughter, Hannah, and also to gather feedback for the board. She asked students to give her suggestions on ways to improve the situation and said the protest may eventually lead to policy change.
Fighting and gang members who use cell phones and pagers to threaten kids are real issues in Marysville, she said.
“You get a group of kids together and decide they don’t like someone and they’ll gang up,” she said. “The entire I-5 corridor has issues with gangs. They’re constantly trying to recruit. In Marysville, we’re certainly not immune.”
. . .
“I think students recognize they can get a better education,” said Ty Reed, a math teacher and the school’s Associated Student Body adviser. “They just need the environment to get it. The constantly disruptive students have interfered.”
I first heard this on the David Bose radio talk show. At first it was hard to hold back the laughter. It just seemed so ludicrous to me that children would have to ask for more discipline. If that doesn’t scream “lax” I don’t know what would. My heart goes out to the kids. It’s a dangerous world and they know they need protection. My guess is that Marysville is just the tip of the iceberg.
A parent called in to David’s show and explained that it wasn’t necessarily the Principal or the teachers who were at fault, but that it was the superintendent. He described how the current superintendent was installed after his predecessor was removed after a horrible battle with the union (WEA) in a strike. He described him as a people pleaser.
If you’re not familiar with public education politics in Washington state, each year the WEA seems to pick a school district to stir up strife, force contract issues to a vote on a package that will most likely fail, and then they stage the obligatory walkout and hype it in the media. It’s all about union dues for fat-cats in Olympia. Children’s education seems unimportant to them. This is the kind of thing they leave in their wake.
