Used to Teach in a High School a Lot Like This One...

i work in a juvenile detention center and as shockng as it may seem, its safer there than your average school. At least there, staff are trained in how to handle youth and you don't have to worry about kids bringing weapons in.

I think teachers really need to have training in youth restraint if they are going to be teaching in these schools today.

Considering the fact that schools nation wide already implement such standards of expulsion for weapon and drug violations and violence still permeates our educational systems your "simple solution" is not such a truly simple one. For every one problem child expelled for such a violation there are 2 or 3+ more just waiting to take his/her place. Not to mention the fact that an expelled student will just be enrolled in another school soon after only spreads the problem further. You could incarcerate such violators, but the juvenile justice system in this country is poor at best. Juvenile detention centers are notoriously bad at rehabilitating problem children with the whole revolving door method in use. Kids are ignored, dismissed, beaten, abused, molested by other inmates as well as correctional officers and or pretty much left to their own devices until their time is served and they are subsequently released back into society. More often than not a juvenile offender comes out a smarter, more hardened criminal than when they went in due to older and more experienced offenders teaching them new and improved methods of commiting the violations they were jailed for to begin with.

A combination of a lackluster school system and shoddy parenting are the major roots of such behaviors. With the "No child left behind" policy kids are pushed through the systems at break neck speeds whether or not they actually perform up to any academic standards. To make the problem even worse a lot of school systems are even lowering their academic standards to allow these under achieving students a chance to slip through the cracks, in their mind it's easier to push a stupid kid through than make them repeat the 10th grade 5 times or more until they get it right and actually learn something. A lot of so called graduates can barely read or write, have any basic math skills and almost no redeemable social skills. This only exaserbates youth criminal activity to the point of being an epidemic. A kid with no book smarts still learns plenty of street smarts, enough to know that selling drugs, guns, commiting robbery and other such crimes net more money a lot faster than a normal 9 to 5 job ever will. Instead of studying hard, applying themselves, working their way through college and then working hard to become a productive member or society it is a lot easier in their mind to continue and expand on the crimes they are already commiting. Why go through all that to earn a potential of $100 grand a year when they can commit crimes and earn a potential of $100 grand a week!

Crappy parenting plays a large part in this failure as well. With a lot of single parent families and non existant father figures (often in jail themselves) the mothers have to work twice as hard to provide for their children. This leaves that child way too much unsupervised time alone, time to fall in with criminal elements and start down the wrong path in life. They expect schools to raise their children for them and often blame the school systems when such children fail in life instead of taking the initiative and being a proper parent. Not too mention those parents that just don't care what their child does and even approves of the criminal activity for the extra income it provides to maintain the household. Honestly, how many of us have seen news broadcasts where a kid was busted for selling drugs or whatever they did and when they interview the parent they act as if they are in total shock and never suspected that their child could be involved in such activities? Now here their 15, 16 or 17 year old child doesn't go to school and doesn't work, but yet they drive a $50,000 BMW or Mercedes, wear thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, the latest and most expensive fashions and have wads of cash on hand at all times and is out all hours of the day and night, but they never would have thought in a million years that THEIR child was involved in any kind of criminal activity? Give me a break, they didn't get that stuff by being a fry cook at Mickey Dees!! lol

There is no truly simple solution to soliving this growing problem. A complex multi-pronged solution is needed. We need to address the school systems poor performance in pushing our kids through and address the parenting skills of these failing students. We can't ignore the problem, just expel them and hope the problem goes away. Until the education system straightens itself out and parents begin to take responsibility for their kids and their actions the problem is only going to continue and increase.

I just don't see that happening anytime soon. It's a lot easier to point fingers and shirk responsibilty than it is to actually do something.


Et interrogabat eum quod tibi nomen est et dicit ei Legio nomen mihi est quia multi sumus

You're a real *beep*