A 10 year-old elementary school student in Kennewick is expelled this week, after school administrators find a YouTube video he made where he displays several guns.Did you catch that? The film wasn't made at school, it doesn't show or mention the school, and the boy made no threats of any kind, but the first step is to expel the student. Geniuses, those people.
The video shows the Ridge View Elementary School student by himself in a room.
He picks up three guns, one at a time, and holds them in front of the camera for several seconds.
The student holds up one gun as if he is going to shoot.
It is not clear if the guns are real or fake.
The student did not make any threats to his school or any students in the 3 minute video, but the Kennewick School District expelled the boy as a safety precaution.
"Any time that something of this nature is brought to our attention, our first step is to expel a student..." said Lorraine Cooper, Kennewick School District.
Education, politics, and anything else that catches my attention.
Saturday, March 03, 2012
School Officials Run Amok (Yet Again)
Do some people go into a tizzy at the mere mention or sight of a firearm? People do:
How about expelling the district administrators? They are the ones making the schools unsafe for, well, children.
ReplyDeleteThe parents of this student need to sue the superintendent, every member of the school board, the principle, the head of the teacher's union, and anybody else involved in the decision to expel this kid as individuals. Don't allow the school to pay the legal bills or the fines. When individual "educators" have to pay out their own pockets, instead of off of the taxpayer's teat, they might just start thinking about how their actions will affect them, personally.
ReplyDeleteI don't think your solution is politically viable, Luke.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I dislike the entire institution of public education in general and the school district concept in particular your solution opens the door to "education by litigation" and even the poor decision-making that's so often the result of the district system will be frozen to uselessness.
The solution is to put the authority with the responsibility.
Either the school district has the responsibility for the kids, along with their authority, or it doesn't. Obviously, explicitly and totally seizing parental authority is a whole lot less politically viable then your solution so the other direction, reducing the authority of school districts, is the only viable direction.
If parents have the choice they'll choose schools that, first, keep their kids safe and then do a good job of educating them. Idiotic behavior by the school administration will undermine the trust necessary to that relationship so schools run by petty tyrants will probably fold assuming said petty tyrant isn't a great educator. So the solution is to accelerate the trend that's undermining the school district.