Strollerderby : middle school

School Says No Touching - Ever

JeanneSager — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:01:00 GMT

Want to make a bunch of middle school kids with their hormones a ragin' really crazy?

Tell them they can't touch other. No high five. No bumping fists. No noogies. And definitely no holding hands - nope, not even locking pinky fingers.

Administrators at a middle school in Connecticut have put out a strict no touching policy in an attempt to cut down on "horseplay" among the students.

In theory, I get it. Kids in middle school are rough on each other - and the kid who was kicked in the groin at the school a few weeks ago was in some serious hurting (I'm a girl, and even I think about the kick in the 'nads and cringe).

But middle school kids don't live in a theoretical world. They're at an age when they literally crave touch. They are starting to get an itch for sexual exploration - even though they're not ready for sex (no matter what they think). So they tickle. They hold hands. They hug. And since they're still little kids, they also tussle, slap five, roughhouse.

Some of them take it too far, obviously, which is where discipline comes into play. Lay down common sense rules, and kids respond. If they don't, they face the consequences. Like punishment for kicking a kid in the groin.

If they weren't respectful enough of the rules NOT to get violent, is a no touching rule really going to stop them? Or is it just going to make a roiling mess of pre-teen hormones go beserk?

Part of the socialization of school is learning to respect one another's personal space. When a pre-teen boy gets too close to a pre-teen girl, she should be developing the wherewithal to tell him to back off. Boys too should be learning where the lines are drawn. Because in the real world, there is no "no touching" rule. We walk past our co-workers, and thanks to years of growing up around other kids, now when we can put our hands on their shoulders to scootch past to get a the coffee machine, now NOT to put our hands on their butt when we do it.

You know where the no touching rule is going to put most of these kids? In detention.

Image: VariousandSundry

School Counselor Forces 12-Year-Old to Take Pregnancy Test

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:25:00 GMT

Parents have filed suit against the Nevada City School District after their twelve-year-old daughter was called out of class by her school counselor and asked to take a pregnancy test.

The counselor, Steve Davis, had heard through the middle school grapevine—a very reliable source of information, as we all know—that the girl was pregnant, and he wanted to see if this was true. The girl (who is naturally remaining anonymous) explained that she was only the butt of a nasty rumor, but took a urine test supplied by the school nurse at Davis’ insistence. Lo and behold, the test came back negative.

My sense, from the limited information we have about the story, is that Davis was genuinely concerned about the girl—he just acted on that concern in the most misguided possible manner. If the rumors about the girl’s pregnancy were so widespread that he felt he had to act on them, he should have found a way to speak with the girl privately and then he should have spoken with the classmate she identified as having started the rumor.

Instead, he behaved in a way that humiliated a 12-year-old and enraged her parents—which is why they’re suing the school district for emotional distress and violation of the right to privacy.

Clearly, no parents would want a school counselor to intervene in their child’s life in such a thoughtless manner as Davis did. But would you want your child’s school counselor to gently and skillfully approach her without your permission if she seemed to be struggling in some way?

Photo: Westridge School (unrelated to this story)

HIV Positive Teen Sues School for Harassment

JeanneSager — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:57:00 GMT

When news started spreading around Westlane Middle School that a fourteen-year-old student had HIV, the harassment began. There were notes slapped on her locker warning her "No AIDS at Westlane." The coach of her soccer team joked that they could use her disease to their advantage - because the other team would be scared. The girl suffered daily name calling, teasing and constant bullying.

Now the girl's been pulled out of school by her parents, who are suing the Indiana institution for doing nothing to save their daughter from her tormentors. More than two decades after Ryan White, do kids still have to hide their HIV status?

There's a marked difference in the knowledge out there about HIV from the instant fear and massive homophobia of my eighties childhood. Ours was perhaps the first generation to be raised to have safe sex not to ward off unwanted pregnancy but to protect you from disease. We grew up in the time of Ryan White . . . and of Magic Johnson and Arthur Ashe. We were taught to be cautious - perhaps taught too much. I remember the health teachers giving us a blow by blow on what HIV and then AIDS could to do the body. Then they gave us the rundown of every single way we could possibly contract the virus. They terrified us - to the point where a bunch of overactive teenage imaginations were envisioning catching HIV by brushing up against someone walking down the street.

Too much of the information thrown at us to keep us safe was off base and overblown. Now the generation raised to shake in their boots at the thought of AIDS is charged with raising their own kids. What are they telling them? Because it sounds like the kids in Westlane Middle School are scared. It sounds like they don't understand that a teenage classmate with AIDS does not mean a death sentence for them. In this day and age it doesn't even mean a death sentence for her (thankfully).

Source: Salon

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Teacher Has Affair With Student, Parents Say Keep The Door Open

Brett Singer — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

OK, I really really really need to never say, "I'm beyond being surprised" EVER AGAIN.

From our big blog sibling Scanner (at Nerve.com), comes this little item.

Anna Louise Thompson, 28, was a "maths" teacher in Brisbane Australia (They says "maths" in Australia, I guess). For three years she had a sexual relationship with one of her female students, beginning when the student was 14. When the student fell in love with a fella, she turned her former lover in and Thompson was fired.

Apparently this was quite the affair to remember. It began "when Thompson proposed the 14-year-old girl go to lunch with her. It soon escalated into sleepovers and racy text messages... while Thompson continued to be married to her husband." Eventually they experimented with various sex toys and other things that sound like these two had a more interesting sex life than I ever will.

Here's the kicker:

But the couple were found out when the parents discovered them having sex one evening. Their reaction was simply to request that their daughter keep her door open when she had visitors. (bild.de)

Um, hi. If I come home and discover that one of my kids is having "relations" with someone their own age (forget about an adult), we're going to have a little chat. I definitely don't want them to do it in my house WITH THE DOOR OPEN WHILE I'M THERE. And did the parents not notice that Ms. Thompson was just a teeny bit older than their daughter? And that's giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming that they were unaware that Thompson was their daughter's "maths" teacher.

The remarkable thing about all of these sex scandals is how often they seem to occur. When you were in school, did you know anyone who was getting a little, shall we say, extra credit? Just based on the odds, I'd say somebody must know of a situation like this.

(Thanks to Brian Fairbanks at Scanner for the tip.)

Source: Scanner

Image/Original story: bild.de

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Teacher's Aide Suspended For Racial Obama Jokes

Brett Singer — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:30:00 GMT

To quote outgoing President George W. Bush, what is our children learning? Apparently the curriculum is Truly Tasteless Jokes. (Anyone remember those?)

An instructional aide at a McCandless vocational school is serving an unpaid suspension for making what a student described as racist comments directed at President-elect Barack Obama.
During a lunch period last week, the aide at A.W. Beattie Career Center said Obama would be killed, KFC would be emblazoned on the American flag and the national anthem would become "Movin' on Up," according to the student's mother.

Mara Gilligan is the parent of a student at the school who complained. She said that her daughter says that the aid becomes "infuriated when anyone mentions Obama…That's fine, you can have your own beliefs, but when you start yelling at someone, that's unacceptable."

This is doubly true with regard to teachers. First of all, I don't want to hear that they express their political views from either side of the aisle. (If McCain had won, would the aide have done a week-long "nyah-nyah" dance?) And the jokes – oof. On what planet does anyone think that's an OK thing to say to a student? It's one thing to have dumb thoughts like that, but when it pops out of your mouth in a school setting, maybe you need to consider a different line of work.

Not that it should matter, but the article mentions that the school's student body is 2.8 percent African-American; the student who complained was biracial. I know at my high school, any teacher who had made a joke like that would have found themselves locked in a closet for a few hours. And that was when Reagan was President.

The aide, identified by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as Chris Skertich, has been suspended without pay "pending a further investigation." In a way, I sort of hope this isn't true. Although a kid making up a story like this wouldn't be much better than a teacher who made those jokes. A little bit better. But not much.

Source: pittsburghlive.com

Image: Amazon.com

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Teacher Sees London, Teacher Sees France, Teacher May Get Suspended

Jen Chaney — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:33:00 GMT

Patrick Foster, a Jacksonville, Fla., middle school teacher, may have wanted to encourage his students to follow the school's dress code. But he seems to have a misguided way of doing that.

The seventh grade science instructor is facing the possibility of suspension because he allegedly told female students in several of his classes to stop wearing T-shirts with words printed across the chest because it would force him to keep "reading it over and over." He also told some of the girls that if they wear skirts so short that he can see their underwear, he will tell them what color panties they are wearing. To emphasize that point, he actually did tell one student what color undies she had on.

Not to leave out the boys, Foster also allegedly advised them not to wear overly baggy pants because, in prison terms, that means they are "open for business." When asked if the events as described actually occurred, he told the Florida Times-Union, "Yes and no, and that’s all I can say.”

Foster may get a 10-day suspension for his behavior, which I would think most would agree is colossally inappropriate. Most, apparently, except for some of the commenters on this Florida Times-Union blog.

"Students who defy the code need a wake up call. His worked," writes one.

"The teacher should not be disciplined for pointing out that the students were dressing like hookers and male bimbos. This is language they could understand, and makes a point with them. Why are the parents (and the gutless principal) not supporting him on this?" writes another.

Yes, perhaps some kids could benefit from wearing more appropriate clothes. But if Foster said what has been reported, there is no excuse for it. Period. No teacher should talk to students that way. His intentions may have been good (key word *may*), but this is clearly not the way to convince kids to clean up their act. If you want teens to have some class, set an example by showing some class. It's as simple as that.

Do kids do better on tests if they get paid?

Brett Singer — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:00:00 GMT

An article in the New York Times last week looked at the practice of paying New York City students if they achieve a certain score on Advanced Placement (AP) exams. The results were "mixed." While there were more 5's (the best score you can get), there was also a "decline in the number of 4’s and 3’s. Three is the minimum passing score." So fewer kids overall actually passed, although some did score higher.

The $2 million NYC program is financed by private donations, according to the New York Times. Top scoring students receive "up to $1,000".

This practice is much in vogue across the country. The article mentions that in Tuscon, Arizona, students that were given, "$100 per month for maintaining perfect attendance and at least a C minus average" had better attendance than students who weren't paid for showing up. Many other examples are cited, totaling millions of dollars.

For an educators' opinion, I emailed Larry Martinek of Mathnasium Learning Centers. In addition to being the co-founder and Chief Instructional Officer of Mathnasium, Larry has been a teacher in Los Angeles for over 30 years. To my slight surprise, he wasn't completely opposed to the idea of paying students for good scores. "The idea of paying students for taking AP exams, et al, is initially appealing. There are strong pros and cons that can be endlessly debated," he wrote. In the end, though, he doesn't think the practice will be effective in the long run. "My personal opinion is that in five years we will look back and see that it is another educational 'fad' that had its '15 minutes of fame' but gave way to the harsh reality that the educational systems needs more fundamental changes than a program like this can provide, and that the starting point for those changes must be in kindergarten through fourth. Until then, we will merely be rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic."

In my personal experience, the best I ever did on a test that I should have flunked was in high school. My 11th grade Spanish teacher (whose name I can't remember) decided that we were all going to pass the Regents Exam for Spanish. In New York, the Regents Exams are sort of like AP tests, only not as difficult. However, they do come with a $1,000 scholarship if you attend a State University of New York school (SUNY). Once he announced to us that he was going to see to it that we passed that test, we hunkered down and got it done. You know what? I passed, and so did the majority of my classmates. I'm not going to tell you that I remember much Spanish (Um, "Lupe esta en la cocina con Pepe y Marisol. En los Estados Unidos!") but no one is offering these kids any money for what they manage to retain 10 years after they leave high school (OK, more than 10, I'm old).

What's the answer? I don't pretend to know. Would you be happy if your kids were paid money to achieve a higher test score? Or should we strive for something more than that?

Source: New York Times
Image: brainbasedbiz

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Facebook Fighting: Kids and Online Bullying

Kelly Mills — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:32:00 GMT

In general, I'm suspicious of hysteria surrounding how kids use the latest technology--nine times out of ten, they just do the same things kids have always done, but in a more high tech way. However, I'm a little torn as to whether social networking sites are bringing changes to interactions on middle and high school campuses. The Washington Post had one piece on a few fights that started on Facebook, and later became physical confrontations, prompting the principal to ask parents to monitor their kids online.

Frankly, that doesn't seem much different than an argument starting in any off-campus physical space. But Facebook and MySpace have brought some changes to bullying. See, it used to be only the kids with social or physical power over other kids could do big-time bullying. But now, kids can post things about classmates anonymously, and that stuff can spread quickly across a campus. In some ways I suppose it creates more equal opportunities for cruelty, but I have to tell you, nowadays many kids who gets seriously picked on find some of the worst stuff comes from webpages that can be viewed by tons of people. Trust me, we'll be hearing about this one for a while to come.

Weekly Check-Up: Skittles and Wellness

Kelly Mills — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:31:00 GMT

Maybe you heard this story: An honor student at a Connecticut middle school got busted for buying Skittles on school grounds. He was stripped of his job as class president, banned from attending an honors student dinner, and suspended for three days, later communted to one day (maybe for good behavior, like he ate an apple in front of the principal or something.) The latest breaking news is that he was cleared of the charges and had his records cleaned up. The student says he didn't know candy was contraband, though he did notice the student dealing in sweets was acting all furtive. Candy is forbidden as part of the school's wellness policy.

Ah, back in my day the schools themselves sold candy to kids at a snack bar, and I'm super glad that's a thing of the past. But this level of punishment is ridiculous, unless the Skittles came with an accompanying bag of weed and a switchblade. On the one hand, this must be an extreme example of a school taking a no-sugar policy to the nth degree, and I'd hate for folks to rise up and cry foul when the food industry and soda lobbies are working hard to push crap-food on our kids by sweetening the deal for schools (sponsoring football fields, generating revenue through soda machines, etc.) However, it does raise one point I think is key: Keep perspective on junk food so we don't lapse into hysteria. Sugar and candy and cupcakes (mmmm) are not going to make anyone "unwell" unless they are consumed in mass quanities very regularly (or you have some medical reason for not being able to eat them, of course.) We don't have to allow them to be pimped in schools, but we also don'thave to make candy a crime. Teaching our children the value of moderation and balance is far better.

Detention Double Standard

Brett Singer — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:30:00 GMT

Following up on PennyGate, it's worth noting that this sort of bizarro school discipline has happened before: in November of last year, Megan Coulter was given two days of detention for the henious crime of hugging. While Megan actually served her time, our commenter Tracey points out that the Penny Gang got a reprieve. The incident has also been downgraded from a "protest" to a "prank" according to the school Superintendent Jorden Schiff. Interesting side note: in 1995, Schiff was one of the youngest people ever to become a high school principal in New Jersey, at age 28.

Here's the best quote of the whole thing: Schiff says that the kids will serve the detentions "if parents ask that their children serve them." Next time I take a flight, I'm going to ask to fly the plane. Hey, why not?

image: merchbot

8th Graders Get Detention for Paying with Pennies

Brett Singer — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:02:00 GMT

Not sure what to make of this one: a group of 29 eighth-grade students at Readington Middle School in New Jersey will have to serve detention (one hour of silence, after school) for paying for their lunch with pennies. Apparently the lunch period had been shortened and paying with pieces of copper was the kids' method of protest. The school said that they weren't punishing the protest; they were responding to the "lack of respect" the students showed to the lunchroom staff, who apparently spent so much time counting the coins (200 per kid), they were unable to serve tuna mushroom casserole to everyone. (The tuna mushroom casserole part is made up, but that was always the most disgusting thing at my school cafeteria. I actually ran for student body president on a "eliminate tuna mushroom casserole" platform. But I digress.)

The comments are, as is often the case on sites other than this one where we have the greatest commenters on the planet, as revealing as they are bizarre. Some examples:

the kids that dreamed this up should all be given a free lunch and an “A” for creativity. Instead the school is about to smother their creativity!
All the stuff about being a bully, this is it! The principal is being a bully to 14 yer olds. Parents have not only the right, but the absolute responsibility to intervene on this.
Kids are Kids, get over it.....
Instead of the administration doing something responsible, like taking the 29 kids and discussing why the Lunch period has to be short on snow days, I.E. State regs, They use their "power" to come up with a trumped charge of "disrespecting" lunch aides to discipline them. They (principal) needs to grow up. ... Are you running a prison? or a school?

Looks like the parents are hopping mad, or at least some of them are: according to the article, it was parents who alerted the media to the story, which received national coverage.

What do you think? Does the punishment fit the crime?

UPDATE: Make sure to read Kelly Mills post about a girl who was punished after stopping a bus full of schoolkids from crashing into traffic. Yowch.

image: merchbot

Bonus video: for no particular reason, here is a clip from Whose Line Is It Anyway, featuring a bit called "Songs of the Lunch Lady."

Kids Suspended for Wearing Condoms to School

Karen Murphy — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:40:00 GMT

Yeah, I saw this headline and wondered just how many ways you can wear a condom in public without it being...well, you know.

So, would you have guessed that the condoms were decorating t-shirts? Me neither. Oh well. Slightly disappointing, that, but what's not in the least disappointing is the fact that two girls wore condom-decorated t-shirts to school in order to protest the wimpy abstinence-only sex-ed program at their middle school. Too bad the school took a dim view of the protest and sent the girls home.

Cheyenne Bird, 14, and Victoria Shoemaker, 15 were sent packing after they came to school packing condoms on shirts that proclaimed "Safe Sex or No Sex". I would be incredibly proud if my kid stages a protest (even an apparently futile one, like this one) like that, but MomLogic interviewed the moms of both girls and the moms weren't 100% supportive. I'm sure there's a bit more to the story and there's tons of emotions and moral values running rampant in such a discussion (not to mention the rampant hormones), and no parent likes hearing their kid was suspended from school, but...c'mon, what's a few condoms between friends, after all?

Photo: www.momlogic.com

What a Relief: School Did Not Ban Farting

Kelly Mills — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:33:00 GMT

Despite media reports, the principal of Camden-Rockport Middle School has clarified that the school did not ban farting in class. Good thing, because libertarians would have had a field day with that one. But it is kind of funny that the story spread faster than a noxious gas filling a room, even reaching the WSJ online and other media outlets. The culprits who dealt the news item in the school newspaper have been identified, though they could not be named because of school confidentiality.

Student journalists filing for the school papper erroneously reported that the intentional farting and subsequent class disruptions of some eighth-grader boys had led to a rule prohibiting intentional farting in class. Supposedly offenders would be punished with detention. (What about shutting them in a small room with the fruits of their own labors? That would be real justice.) I'm sure teachers are relieved to know the rule was never in effect, because who wants the job of detemining whether or not a burst of flatulence was intentional? However, we should note that kids who intentionally rip one can still be disciplined, under the much broader "class disruption" rules. Yes, innocents will not have to suffer because school admins are soft on intestinal crimes.

Principal Pulls Awesome Stunt To Boost Grades

Kelly Mills — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:33:00 GMT

What can I say? I'm a sucker for serious dedication to kids and a flair for showmanship. In an effort to boost grades and win better behavior from students, Principal Bob Vicari has basically made students offers they couldn't refuse: Improve, and I'll take one for the team. In his six years as a middle school principal, he's rewarded students for meeting his challenges by lettting them peg him with water balloons and smash pies in his face, and he's moved his office to the roof--twice.

So how do you top that? Well, this time he promised to eat bugs if students stepped up. And actually a record number of them made the honor roll, so he chomped down live crickets three times, one for each grade. "I was told you have to floss afterwards because the legs get caught between your teeth," he quipped to students. It's truly a nice story to read, and he sounds like a helluva guy.

Unpopular and Fat: A Scientific Fact

Madeline Holler — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:43:00 GMT

Which came first, the social isolation or the excess pounds?

A new study looking to, I don't know, dredge up the deeply buried insecurities of grown women and/or convince parents to homeschool their kids has found that the less popular a girl perceives herself to be the more weight she'll gain during the teenage years. Conjuring images, no doubt, of the lonely sophomore eating a pint of ice-cream in a darkened kitchen while her cellphone never rings. Ugh!

The study: researchers recorded a pack of 15-year-olds' BMIs and had them determine which rung on the picture of 10-rung ladder they might be standing. A few years later, they calculated the grown girl-now-woman's BMI. Those who rated themselves along the bottom half of the ladder were 69 percent more likely to gain an excess of 11 pounds (there were allowances made for expected weight gain for the still-growing group of girls).

But here's what I find pretty interesting:

The researchers put the girls into two groups: the 4,264 who said they were on rung 5 or above, and the 182 who said they were on rung 4 or below. The weight gain link was based on those two groups.

That's a pretty small group who ranked themselves so low, isn't it? What I'd like to know is whether the lower your rank yourself the more you gained or more likely you were to gain, that kind of thing. And does the 182 number represent the expected percentage to be clinically depressed or whatever? I mean, is popularity the key here?

Of course, there is more work to be done.

Clea McNeely of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health called the study strong. She said she wanted to know more about the 4 percent of girls who rated themselves below average in popularity, particularly whether they already were gaining weight faster before they rated themselves as unpopular.

Now, what I'd really like to know is whether anyone who ranked herself at the top of the ladder wound up super obese. Because I'm bitter like that.

Save Up Now for a College Coach So Your Kid Can Go Ivy

Karen Murphy — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:03:00 GMT

It's not enough that you've got to be filling out preschool applications before your morning sickness ends. No, if you want your kid to ~~not suck~~ succeed in life, it's all about college. And parents are shelling out $40,000 or more to hire a coach to get their kid into the right college.

The secret? It's all about branding.

A savvy coach can assess your kid's interests, help him build an impressive resume and high school class load, and hone and fine-tune him into becoming everything he can be, and more.

I completely relate to the incredible pressure that begins in middle school to get your kid in the right "track" so they can be positioned into taking the right classes in high school and pulling the grades necessary and having the right summer job and volunteering for the right causes. Just reading this Business Week article caused me to hyperventilate a little: I have a kid who just started middle school; he's in 6th grade and I'm already thinking of what he'll be doing in high school and beyond.

But what happened to letting kids be kids? About letting them stumble a little along the way, helping them up afterward of course, but learning to make decisions? About trying on different things to see what they really like to do? Choosing a college major was painful for me at 17; does a kid really know what he wants to do for the rest of his life at, say, 12, so he'll be okay with the branding and the honing and the fine-tuning? Or are most kids simply going to go along with whatever someone tells them, and then wake up one morning fifteen years later to find out they really didn't want that MBA after all?

Are we putting too much pressure on our kids, and adding to that with these ridiculous coaches?

Frankly, I'm a bit torn on this one. I have a smart kid. He'll probably do well at whatever he chooses, and I'd like to support that, encourage his interests and help him build his potential. We're already talking about him skipping a grade next year. I'm a parent like all of you, and as a parent I want my kid to be happy and do well at whatever he chooses, and help him get there. But where do I draw the line? I haven't got an extra $40K to blow on a coach, fortunately, but plenty of helicopterish parents will likely get themselves even deeper into debt to do what they think is best for their kids.

We talk about slowing down as adults, parents, and families. We talk about building priorities and letting go of things that don't matter. We talk about focusing on what's really important in our lives. I think we should start with our kids, so maybe they don't have to go through the same sort of introspective, life-altering process that we did.

Testify: Being a Tween in the Locker Room Is a Little Bit of Hell

Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:03:00 GMT

Years ago, I sat at lunch with a big group of women I worked with at the time. Our ages spanned the generations and one woman, a mother of a girl entering middle school, told us a story about how the other girls in the class were giving her 12-year old daughter a very hard time. We all shook our heads in a collective, compassionate "Say it, sister!" All of us remembered what a tough, tough time being twelve was.

It is the age of horror when the mean girls start to dig in and the nice girls run back to their closets to cry and play Barbies (not that I'd - ahem - remember that at all). It is the time when some kids when some still think the opposite sex is disgusting and others are well...you had at least a vague idea of what those kids were doing. When all those hormones and emotions and prank calls and boy-girl parties and junior-sized bras are mixed together in an academic setting, things can get terrifying and quick.

Finally, someone with some sympathy for middle school angst and anxiety is stepping up and saying, "Enough with the nakedness!" Elizabeth Woodruff, a clinical instructor of kinesiology at University of Alabama says that feelings of body inadequacy and the possibility of hazing on teams and in locker rooms are preventing many tweens from participating in PE, especially if they have to change or shower in front of classmates. Woodruff says parents need to seriously address this tween terror so that kids are free to take part in sports and gym class without fear. Removing just one more bit of hell from 12-year old existence? I say Amen! and Hallelujah! for my pubescent brothers and sisters.

Harmless Flirting or Sexual Harassment?

ChagHolland — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:00:00 GMT

Middle school students Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison were arrested in February and charged with five counts of felony sexual abuse for slapping girls' bottoms as they walked the halls of their school. The felony charges have since been reduced and the boys have been offered probation in exchange for a plea, but Mashburn and Cornelison plan to contest the charges and face ten years in jail and a lifetime on the sex offender registry.

This is insane. While their actions are definitely inappropriate for school, slapping fellow middle school students on the butt should not be considered a felony. It's harmless flirting and should be treated as such.

Apparently, butt-slapping is commonplace at their school. On "Slap Butt Fridays," both male and female students would slap each other on the rear as they passed in the hall. They referred to it as their "handshake." These kids don't sound like sexual predators to me. They're just immature, hormone-crazed teenagers. We did the same thing when we were in middle school. We just weren't clever enough to give it a name.

Detention or temporary school suspension would have been acceptable punishment for their actions, not lives as registered sex offenders.

Family, Backed By ACLU, Sues School District Over Dress Code

Alisyn — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:36:00 GMT

Apparently, 14-year-old Toni Kay Scott's parents thought that her school's explicit dress code - which has been in effect for 10 years and is spelled out in the school's policy statement - applied to everyone but their daughter. The Scotts, along with the A.C.L.U., are suing Redwood Middle School and the Napa Valley School District for "unconstitutionally vague, overbroad and restrictive uniform dress code policy.''

Young Toni Kay, now an 8th grade honor student, has been "dress coded" (i.e. punished for dress code violations) 12 times in the last year and a half, but that hasn't stopped her from wearing shirts with logos and slogans on them, pink sneakers, and socks with Tigger on them. Granted, these all seem like petty, insignificant offenses - and they are. But Toni Kay is a repeat offender, more than occasionally disregarding her school's explicit policy of solid color clothes/backpacks only, and no pictures, words, symbols or patterns. She takes time away from students and teachers by doing so. She wastes the school's resources every time someone has to sit with her in detention. And for what? The right to wear some Disney store sale rack socks? Please.

The Scott family and the A.C.L.U. say the dress code "flouts state law, violates freedom of expression, and wastes teachers' and students' time and attention that would be better spent on education." The school district says "[The rules] ensure the safety, and protect the instructional time, of all students." The district also sites the fact that kids are on a level social playing field in uniforms. The school principal says "You cannot tell on my campus the kids that come from a low-income family.''

I just don't get why this is such a big deal. They're school uniforms, not iron maidens. Parents of middle schoolers - how do you feel about the uniform controversy? Hate 'em or love 'em? Why?

School Confirms Sixth Graders Had Sex in Class While Teacher Was (Supposedly) Teaching

thezeroboss — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:02:00 GMT

You know that scene from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life where John Cleese's teacher character give his charges a class in "sex education" by screwing his wife in front of them? Only in the movies, right? One can only pray. Still, reality has a way of proving that it's more fiendish and bizarre than Hollywood could ever hope.

For months, school administrators for the Warren Township District wouldn't talk about what was rumored to have happened in a sixth grade class at the Raymond Park Middle School in Indianapolis, Indiana. Now, they're finally admitting that two students got it on in full view of an "experienced teacher" and 10 student witnesses. Even worse? School officials told everyone to shut the hell up and pretend it never happened.

The teacher supposedly turned the students in the minute he realized what was happening. But, come on. Most classrooms aren't that large. Can you say "out of control class"? Whoops, too late - your students are already copulating!

School To Kids: Shut Up and Eat

Alisyn — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:21:00 GMT

Saint Rose of Lima School, in Warwick, CT, is enforcing a new lunchtime rule: silent lunches.

After three recent "choking incidents" in the school cafeteria, administrators are cracking down on student chit chat, and issuing detentions to any students found talking during lunch period. Principal Jeannine Fuller said she's not trying to be a facist, but that "the school's priority is the safety of each child."

I remember the dreaded "rainy day" lunches at my middle school. The only free hour we had from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. was co-opted by the lunch ladies, who brought us ancient boardgames, gave us extra Apple Brown Betty if we asked for it (we didn't), and shushed us madly, glaring at us from under their hairnets. I feel sorry for the kids of Saint Rose of Lima, with their forced "rainy day" lunches hitting them hard and heavy, every day. How unrealistic is that? No gossiping, no joking, no releasing the tension of a morning spent getting their learn on. That's borderline child abuse. Maybe they should just revisit Eating 101.

Hate Gym? Bribe Your Teacher For $1 To Sit Out

Karen Murphy — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:01:00 GMT

I remember 7^th grade gym class like it was yesterday. The locker room always had a particular smell of old sweat and unwashed clothes and moldy showers, and it was where we changed out of our clothes into horrible polyester navy blue shorts and unflattering blue-and-white striped (horizontal, of course) shirts. At least the old one-piece jumpsuits from the 60's had been consigned to use only if your own gym clothes were forgotten, something I vowed never to do, accomplished easily enough if you never took your gym clothes home at all for washing. Then there were the girls, most of them already well-developed and flaunting it in sparkling white bras. I was a year younger than everyone, and thin, and had to beg my mom to get me a bra to cover my flat chest just so I could maintain a modicum of modesty while changing.

Gym itself was another nightmare entirely. Not being particularly athletic, I was relegated to the last-picked in any team event, just me and the remaining girls: the fat, the very thin, the geeky, the ones with coke-bottle glasses. Girls with their periods could sit out for a day or two, some stretching this into practically the entire month, but the rest of us were forced daily to play dodge ball and inane relay races and throw basketballs at one another’s noses, all tortures designed to showcase the able and the athletic, the popular, and to create a living hell for everyone else.

Which is why I so wish I’d had Tamara Tootle for my gym teacher. Ms. Tootle must have been the most popular teacher at the Ernest Ward Middle School in Walnut Hill, Florida, because for a paltry $1 per student per year, she “gave students who didn't participate or dress for her gym class” a participation grade of 100%. Is that cool or what?? No gym all year for just $1?! So Ms. Tootle has lost her certification to teach and has to perform 300 hours community service after pleading nolo contendre to six felony counts of bribery, all in exchange for, what, maybe a few hundred dollars per year? It hardly seems worth it, but I’ll bet those students are still smiling.