A 13 year old Spectrum High School (in Martin County) student was arrested for "Disrupting a School Function." According to various news accounts, the student started by intentionally and repeatedly farting in class and going around and disconnecting the computers other students were using.
If you look at the comments to this story at www.tcpalm.com, you see that the majority of the posters get stuck on the farting part and completely miss the part about disconnecting the computers. Also, many think that the child should not have been arrested for these acts for one reason or another, but usually either because "he's just a kid" or "it's an alternative school so they should expect bad behavior."
Spectrum High School is a last-ditch effort by the Martin County School District to educate those students who are so misbehaved they have been kicked out of every other school they've been to. When I was in school, there was no "alternative" school such as this. If you screwed up too much, you were expelled and it was your parents responsibility to get the child an education. Martin County, however, started this alternative school in the early 90's and the program has worked amazingly well. However, when kids are sent to this school, they are told that bad behavior will not be tolerated. The next step for them is expulsion and, possibly, arrest. The school has a strict zero-tolerance rule. Most of the kids here know there's nothing left for them after this because, if they get expelled, the only other option is private school, which their parents can't afford.
The child was arrested for "Disrupting a School Function." This was mainly the result of turning off the other student's computers, not because of the farting. The farting was only a small part of the overall picture. Naturally, the mainstream media zeroed in on that part of the story because that's the sensational part. They completely glossed over the actual disruption to the other students. Irresponsible reporting at it's very best.
The student will very likely be expelled after this incident, and rightfully so. The parents created this monster, let them fix it. But, they'll probably sue the school system and the Sheriff's Office. They'll probably get some good money out of it, too, thanks to our screwed up tort system, but that's another blog entry.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Got the part about this being the final stop for these kids, but I still feel arrest is a little severe for disrupting class.
I think the worst that would have happened back when I was in school would have been being sent to the principle's office - not arrested.
If you look at the world through a cardboard tube, you see only the farting and the arresting in this story. There are people who wear such blinders permanently. Some can do so and consider themselves "compassionate," "sympathetic," or "enlightened." So did Inquisitors. So did Engels and Marx. It sounds good in the short term, taken out of context, and with not so much as a nod to the real victims.
To even be in such a "last chance" school is to have consistently and repeatedly disrupted those who try to learn, to have been sent to the principal's office many times. At some point, after many warnings, after many disruptions, after leaving a wake of disregard, one is given an ultimatum. This school is the ultimatum. Soften the ultimatum, eliminate cause-and-effect, and you destroy accountability.
This student exercised will to purposefully disrupt other students after being given an ultimatum. He is learning that he is, indeed, accountable for his actions. It is a lesson many people need to learn, from Congressmen to bureaucrats to common thieves to executives with golden parachutes to this kid. We could use a huge dollop of accountability these days. I'm all for second chances, third chances when appropriate. But there has to be an end to it, clearly stated with iron-clad consequences. And the consequences must flow at the appropriate time.
Nothing else works. Everything else worships those who only take.
Just my two cents.
Tim
Post a Comment