Strollerderby : suspension

Sixth Graders Disciplined for Hit a Jew Day

JeanneSager — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:07:00 GMT

I'm not a big fan of corporal punishment, but there are days its tempting to hit a kid. Specifically ones who would come up with "Hit a Jew Day" to celebrate their school's spirit week.

The goal of "spirit week" was to encourage celebrations like "hug a friend day" and "high five day" at a Missouri middle school. But the sixth graders who coined "Hit a Jew Day" decided to slap one Jewish student across the face and smack two others on the arm. The incident was turned into a chance for the principal to talk about the Holocaust, multi-culturalism and acceptance of others, and the kids were suspended.

The principal did the right thing, but I wonder what else can be done. I don't honestly think corporal punishment is in order - that was a knee-jerk reaction to the horror of the headline at CNN. What's needed is tolerance and compassion, modeling of behaviors that these children apparently don't see every day. I can't believe intolerance is inate. Kids don't come up with this kind of hatred on their own (even if the means of carrying it out are their own creation). Suspension usually means days spent at home, more time spent in a household where they're being raised to think up "Hit a Jew Day." What's next? Crosses blazing on the middle school lawn? An Australian study showed we're likely to become less tolerant as we age, not more, so this isn't that much of an overreaction.

So how do you reverse it? Counseling? Maybe. Putting thse kids in the other kids' shoes? How? As I said, hitting back isn't the answer.

It's a reminder that we're responsible for modeling the right behavior for our kids. A lot of people assume they can tell an off color joke as long as they don't "really" believe it. Guess what; kids can't tell the difference. Literally and figuratively mean nothing to them. Everything you say, they hear. Everything they hear gets filed away, and when it starts piling up in there, they start forming their opinions on life based on all of that stored up information. We have to give them the "right" information if we expect the "right" decisions.

Image: FamilyCrafts

GOP Shows Obama With Fried Chicken and Watermelon

Mom Plans to Burn Book her Son's Library Book - Really

RNC Mailer Could Give Your Kids Nightmares

Barack Obama: The Force Is Strong With "That One"

Middle Schoolers Exposed to Curse Words, Parents Shocked

Palin Plays the Race Card, Badly

Father in Iraq Calls Son During Class. Son Suspended.

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:20:00 GMT

Schools these days have plenty to worry about, the least of which is text messaging and cell phone calls. So this tale of a high school boy being suspended for taking a call from his father, stationed in Iraq, is sympathetic and troubling.

I feel for teachers, charged as they are with teaching kids with attention deficit disorder (among other things), kids with no manners, who are illiterate, violent, or worse...

And don't let's even discuss No Child Left Behind. This the kind of story the patriots love to get worked up about. A kid can't even take a call from his Dad who is serving our country?

But as usual, it just isn't that simple.

Lord Of The Flies Plays Out In Georgia

Amy S.F. Lutz — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:32:00 GMT

No one's head ended up on a stick - but it surely wasn't due to the lack of a very impressive and coordinated effort on the part of nine Georgia third-graders.

School officials at Center Elementary School believe the students were mad at their teacher for punishing one of them with a time-out. In retaliation, the students concocted a plan involving a knife, handcuffs, duct tape, a crystal paperweight and a ribbon - all of which were recovered from the students, who have been suspended and may be expelled pending the police investigation.

You've got to be impressed with the solidarity of these children, sticking up for their own. Still, I'm thinking the class would probably benefit from a lesson in non-violent protest - sit-ins, boycotts, those kinds of things. I think Martin Luther King Jr. himself would be the first to acknowledge that injustice has never been righted with a ribbon and a paperweight.

Kindergartener Suspended From School For Sporting a Mohawk

Kelly Mills — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:35:00 GMT

Ah, in a day and age when many schools are instituting programs to combat children teasing other children about their appearance, one school has decided to put the bullies out of a job by doing their work for them. Six-year-old Bryan Ruda was suspended from charter school Parma Community School in Ohio. Um, because he has a "mohawk," which in this case does not mean liberty spikes but that he has the sides of his head shaved and his hair is longer on top. The school has a dress code that does not prohibit mohawks specifically, but says students have to be properly groomed. Whatever that means.

Oh, but the rationale for the suspension is classic: Administrators say the hair was "disrupting the educational program" and that other students commented on it, making them disruptive and more difficult to control. I guess that's powerful hair. And this was a "third offense," meaning that Bryan's mom was warned about the problem hair before when it had product in it, and while it was growing out things were sort of okay. However, a re-shaving threw the class into chaos, I suppose. The school board decided over the weekend to suspend the kid, which makes me think they must have zero educational issues at all, since they have time to debate the merits of a kindergartener's style. Nice.

Photo: Peggy Turbett/The Plain Dealer

Teacher Suspended for Being a Porn Star

Kelly Mills — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:03:00 GMT

Anna Cirani is a teacher in Italy. She's also "Madameweb", an internet porn star. (No offense to Cirani, but the porn star name I came up with playing those porn star name games was waaaay better. Just call me Bootsy Santa Ynez.) The Italian press just calls her the "porno-prof". Anyhow, school authorities recently decided that her two jobs were not compatible, and suspended her. She says, "My behavior at school has always been professional and irreproachable...I am a normal woman, with my family and my work as a teacher. I am (also) looking for transgression and sex." Now there's a sentiment I can get behind! She used to teach Italian lit at a secondary school, but when students covered the toilets with naked photos of her from the internet, she was transferred and taught evening classes to foreign adult students.

Okay, I don't think she should have been suspended for her film career. When I wrote about a teacher who had barely-even-risque pics of herself on the internet, some people mentioned it was unprofessional of her and that she ought to be a role model. But I'm sticking to my guns: in the classroom, role model, okay. Outside the class? None of my business. Look, there's lots of stuff I don't want my kid exposed to yet--drinking, smoking, politics--but that doesn't mean I think teachers shouldn't engage in these things on their own time, and even publicly. And I'm very pro porn, so you know, more power to Madameweb. I hope no more kid students of hers would be in a position to view her work (and it's not really on her if they are) so if she's a good teacher, moonlight all you want.

Six-Year-Old Suspended For Drawing a Kid Shooting Another Kid

Kelly Mills — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:20:00 GMT

When my kid was in preschool, one of the parents approached me while we were waiting to pick up our kids. "Uh, I, um, just wanted to let you know your daughter told my child she was going to kill her." I think I made a choking sound. It's not exactly what you want to hear as a parent. However, my kid has yet to torture small animals or obsessively watch Columbine footage--she was just in the process of learning that words have power. And of course, preschoolers do not generally carry out such threats. And either do first graders, like the one who was suspended from a Little Butte school for drawing a stick figure shooting another stick figure and threatening to shoot other students.

Now, there's a few things that go into this case. First, the boy said the drawing was inspired by a Simpsons episode where a character displays a drawing of a kid getting shot. But he also told two girls he was going to shoot them in the head, which naturally disturbed them. The boy's dad sounds like a reasonable guy (he understands why other parents are upset) and he is fairly pissed at the school for the suspension, saying he felt the disciplinary action was too severe and that "I'm not sure how this is going to affect how my kid is perceived. They may view him as a violent kid or a terrorist, or whatever."

You know, I don't think kids ought to be given the green light to threaten each other (unless it's my kid), but I do sense school shooting paranoia in this. The problem is that lots of kids are fascinated by violent things (as are adults) and I know many who have drawn scenes of carnage or said some dark stuff. The vast majority of kids are just being ordinary and then there's a tiny, tiny, tiny few who will act on those impulses. Let those among you who have not not said, "Bang bang, you're dead" cast the first stone.

Educators Brought Down By Porn, Death Wishes

Madeline Holler — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:10:00 GMT

I think people who use a computer for work and also view Internet porn should probably just invest in separate machines for both. Especially if their work is anywhere near a school, or children, or schoolchildren, or teachers, or an overhead projector.

Case in point:

An Arizona high school teacher, whose computer was linked with an overhead projector, left his machine running while he stepped out of the room. Shortly thereafter, naked ladies replaced pie charts and, for once, every student in the room faced forward and paid attention. The teacher has been assigned to a non-classroom position, pending an investigation. Does he get a computer for this new assignment?

For our next little demonstration of dangers in mixing impulse, technology, and education, my only advice is this: if you’re a school superintendent, don’t send emails suggesting you’d like to kill teachers.

The Catskill, N.Y., superintendent lived everybody’s worst nightmare and sent an email to some unintended recipients, namely, teachers, asking the intended recipient this rhetorical question: “Why don’t you kill these people,” referring to ... teachers. Ouch! She tried to retract the email and immediately apologized to the teachers who received it. But damn if that forward button isn't the most convenient double-edge sword ever -- can't live without it/can't keep your dignity with it! -- and now it's a pretty big deal for the entire district. Despite a public apology at a school board meeting, 100 teachers who have never made a regrettable mistake in their lives walked out.

Can a School Suspend a Child Just for Having a MySpace Account?

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:02:00 GMT

Big Brother really is watching you. Well, maybe not you, but the kids that go to St. Hugo in the Hills Catholic School. It would seem that the administration has decided to suspend any student that has a MySpace account, even if they exclusively access it from home.

What the hell? Can they do that? I mean - I guess they are a private school. Maybe you can have completely unreasonable rules if you don't receive any government funding. I can see where they could deny students access to MySpace at school, but not at home. Doesn't that seem a little bit overreaching? That is like me telling the neighborhood kids that if they play in my yard they can't eat cookies when they get home.

Maybe the school is just pissed off because the name is so hilarious. St. Hugo in the Hills. That is funny. I don't care who you are.

But really - I can't see where a school should have control over what the kids do at home especially if it is something as innocuous as having a MySpace account. What if they are just listening to music and not picking up Congressmen? If my kid went to that school I would be angry. I'm not saying that I am thrilled about the prospect of my child loose on the internet, I mean, look what has become of me. What I am saying is that it is not the responsibility or the right of a school to monitor the behavior of a child in the home.