No escaping the violence
kimberlyswygert.com
Talk about a wake-up call:
The flying chair that knocked out a Cleveland high school administrator on Monday should send alarms throughout the city. When going to class means risking a hospital visit, education stands no chance. And when adults look at chaos and call it order, they undermine the school district's credibility and put more students in jeopardy.
Monday's fracas at South High School that sent an administrator and a student to emergency rooms is only the latest example of uproar in local buildings. As Plain Dealer columnist Regina Brett reported on Sunday, Glenville High School suffered an incident of its own last week that bloodied students and teachers and led to the arrests of two teens. Journalists' visits to Collinwood High School, meanwhile, have revealed an institution where students are completely comfortable loitering in hallways when they should be in class.
The Great Schools reviews of South High will litter your screen with popups, but they're still worth reading. Local police and school officials are desperately trying to regain control there, but something tells me that police presence isn't the key:
At South High, however, police say a parent pitched in to injure a student, underlining the desperate need for church and community leaders to play a vocal and visible role in establishing basic standards for behavior.
There you have it, folks. I fear that no amount of police officers - or mayoral initiatives - are going to do much good when parents are willing to beat up on other people's children. Sure, the cops can drag the adult troublemakers away, but with that example, it's hard to see how the younger students can learn how to behave in less violent ways. |
