Absolutely amazing.
The Dallas school system was rocked by allegations Thursday that staff members at an inner-city high school made students settle their differences by fighting bare-knuckle brawls inside a steel cage.
The principal and other employees at South Oak Cliff High knew about the cage fights and allowed the practice to continue, according to a 2008 report by school system investigators....
The report, first obtained by The Dallas Morning News, describes two instances of fighting in an equipment cage in a boys' locker room between 2003 and 2005. It was not clear from the report whether there were other fights....
"It was gladiator-style entertainment for the staff," Frank Hammond, a fired counselor who has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the district, told the newspaper. "They were taking these boys downstairs to fight. And it was sanctioned by the principal and security."
Now, give me a few minutes in there with an administrator or two, and fun can be had :-)
3 comments:
At one time, this is how the teachers dealt with students fighting at my high school. They gave both of the students boxing gloves and had them duke it out in the wrestling room.
(Mind you, this was long before I went there. Back when it was an all boys high school.)
DISD has a long and tarred record on what is acceptable and unacceptable on their campuses. Sure, there are some good schools where students and teachers do what they are supposed to do. But there are also schools where gangs are rampant, parents ineffective or missing and teachers who are less than highly qualified. One of the worst aspects of the district is their adherence to policies wherein less qualified candidates will be hired if they speak Spanish. A friend of mine was a long time teacher at a Dallas elementary school. She spoke a little Spanish, but she was able to coach her kids to succeed in testing and in the classroom. That school was highly recognized for what they had done with the students. Then "someone" in upper administration mandated that all the teachers in her school MUST speak Spanish, so she was involuntarily transferred to a school with more violence. She will retire this year. I see this as a move to force long time, higher cost experienced teachers out of the district. By the way, in her place they hired a teacher who speaks Spanish, but has to have translation to speak with the principal because she doesn't understand spoken English. Nice. In this atmosphere where the criteria for hiring isn't who can do the job well, but how the hiring stats appear, I don't think we should be at all surprised at anything that goes on in the schools. Dallas ISD is just another of many urban districts who worships at the temple of political correctness rather than hiring the best folks for the job regardless of their background.
I have always thought it would be best to put two fairly evenly matched folks in a boxing ring to settle their differences. Give them gloves and headgear, and strictly enforce the Marquis of Queensbury rules.
It's better than the alternatives, if they resort to using weapons on each other outside the school, or get their gang to jump the other guy, or even come in and shoot up the entire school.
When two folks have a *thing* for each other, it will have to be settled in some fashion sooner or later. Better to settle it in a supervised setting.
But the namby-pambies haven't figured that out yet!
But I agree that bare-knuckles in a steel cage is a bit over the top.
--chicopanther
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