Parents have always been concerned about their kids getting to school safely, but it looks like the worry shouldn't end at the front doors.
An 8-year-old student from the Bronx is accused of slashing a 9-year-old classmate in the neck with a double-edge razor.
The fight went down during recess where the kids were arguing in the play yard. The younger of the two whipped out the weapon and cut the other one, who was rushed to the hospital, stitched up, and released.
How scary is that?! Rough high schools are one thing but this is ridiculous. It's like Lean on Me for the Elmo-adoring set. But as disturbing as it is to picture this half-pint playing Freddy Krueger, I find it even more shocking that school parents are BLAMING THE TEACHERS for the violence.
Many say classes are overrun with "problem children" because the administration is not strict enough when it comes to discipline. (I should note that this school has a history of behavioral issues. The students are so bad, the principal canceled the fifth grade graduation ceremony.)
Now, I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt the teachers are arming them with shanks and encouraging a round of The Hunger Games near the swing set. It's not reading, writing, and assault with a deadly weapon.
The problems these students have began long before they landed in those classrooms. Violence is a learned behavior and most kids learn it in their homes or from those closest to them. That means it's the parents' job to teach them right and wrong, to respect the lives of others, and how to resolve differences without violence. Of course teachers should reinforce those life lessons, but is it really fair to make it their job to curb anti-social or homicidal tendencies?
Now, I do think kids can pick up bad habits at school, but a willingness to literally cut another student's throat is beyond that. It’s ultimately the parents responsibility to shape them into good, decent people.
What do you think? Are the teachers to blame for these out-of-control students?
Image via yellowcloud/Flickr
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Comments 42
I believe that too many times the parents are quick to point the finger elsewhere when it should be right at themselves. A child needs to be told what is right and what is wrong, and learned behavior such as bringing a double-edged razor to school can only fall on the parents. I have actually just set up a website, Jeanestee.com, that I created to help parents get through the everyday struggle of parenthood.
Since a lot of children aren't getting discipline from their parents either, of course they are going to run wild. And they are going to act out what they see in the media. And I suspect it is going to get a whole lot worse.
The parents of the victim should sue the pants off the parents of the perpetrator. Hit them where it hurts; their wallets.
Who in their right mind is going to choose to pursue a teaching credential, with things trending the way they are? Teachers are being blamed for everything under the sun! It is ridiculous! Who is going to do this extremely important yet terribly paying job if the stress of doing it keeps getting higher and higher?
Especially in NYC, a big part of the problem with the schools is that they are no longer "neighborhood" schools. Children take buses and subways all over the boroughs to go to particular schools, leaving certain schools to be attended only by those students who didn't apply to or get into the "specialty" schools. Those schools are almost always populated by children whose parents are too busy or too uninvolved to have gone through the application process and even those kids are coming from the far reaches of the boroughs. Parent involvement is often next to zero, both in their children's behavior and parent/school activities or communication.
How can you blame the teacher(s) for this? Did the child get the blade from a teacher?
Now a days a teacher can't even raise their voice at mommy's precious without threat of a lawsuit.
Our society is turning into such a joke. No personal responsibility. Everything is everyone else's fault. "I'm perfect and so is my child" attitudes are running rampat.
And my principal was awesome- he put his $ where his mouth was- HE backed us up and unless administration is going to do that, there is a breakdown in discipline.
Sadly, it sounds like these teachers don't stand a chance. It's not their fault.