PSPD

The New York Times reports on an unsettling trend in education: rowdy behavior that once would've gotten students sent to the principal's office is now getting them sent to jail. I guess adminsitrators figured that as long as the cops are there for the SWAT-style drug raid, they might as well kill two birds with one stone and haul off class clowns and kids violating the dress code… (Hat tip: reader Jennifer Abel)

Comments

[Dan]

Arresting kids for dress code violations is pretty obviously wrong.

I have to say, though, that the little 14-year-old bitch in the Times story definitely needed to be "scared straight".

[thoreau]

I went to a Catholic grade school. Physical punishment was verboten, but the teachers still knew how to maintain control of the classroom.

I also spent a year of high school in South Carolina. The police were automatically called to handle fights. For that matter, the police were called to arrest students for trespassing if they went to the other campus without permission (there was a campus for grades 9-10, and another for grades 11-12).

And who called the cops, you might ask? A 400 pound "security guard" in a golf cart.

[mojo jojo]

What ever happened to detention?

[Julian Sanchez]

Just to clarify: I certainly don't have any objection to involving the police when one student assaults another--that's a serious crime, and there's every reason to send a strong condemnatory message. But for talking out of turn or wearing skimpy tops?

[GoonFood]

Just one step closer to a police state. Rely on them for every part of your life and they will go ahead and control every part of your life.

[Douglas Fletcher]

"What ever happened to detention?"

Maybe the teachers that held it got tired of it.

I remember back in the '80s there was a teacher who played Sinatra records when he held detention. Drove the kids nuts, they'd do anything to not go back.

Maybe this year they could run a video loop of the Democratic presidential debates, though that might be too cruel.

[Mikiel]

Personally, I'm all for it. Anytime an educrat shows his true colors it's a good thing, and what a pretty portrait it paints. Skimpy shirts are disruptive and "make it impossible for teachers to teach and kids to learn." Never mind that the teachers aren't teaching anything worth learning. Don't look at the man behind the curtain.

There's quite a lot of upside to this story. The 14-year-old girl, by the simple act of wearing a shirt to school, has compelled the school administration to overtly demonstrate their "do what we say not because it's right but because we can force you to" attitude to the public. The school even managed to do it the only way that really matters: with a cop and a lawyer. The girl has learned something about the futility of arguing with closed minds. The school's dress code has performed the one and only function it can ever excel at: causing more problems than it solves. And the rest of the student body has learned a healthy disrespect for authority figures.

That 14-year-old should be nominated for Teacher of the Year.

[Sebastian]

I'm not sure I agree with you Mikiel. It's worth considering that the fascist crap going on in the public schools will only serve to raise a generation of servile conformist kids.

[asg]

Far be it from me to take the side of the educrats, but perhaps they're: afraid that if they lay a finger on a student, they'll be sued, or maybe concerned that parents will automatically take the problem kid's side. In any case there is certainly nothing wrong with the police being called to schools; I think it is done far too infrequently in cases of physical bullying, for example.

[Gordon Shumway]

To be fair, students are being arrested for behavior that at one time would have gotten them a smack across the head or a paddling in the principal's office, but recently got them nothing more than "if your child does this one more time, we'll send another note home" note sent home.

Fuckin' kids today got no respect, back in my day...

[Chuck Divine]

Gordon,

Unless you're much older than I (I'm 58), I'm going to argue you don't know what you're talking about.

I grew up in New Jersey back in the 1950s and 1960s. Back then New Jersey was, I believe, one of two states in the U.S. where it was illegal -- jail time illegal -- for a teacher to hit a student. I presume some exceptions were made for fortunately rare acts of self defense, but educational authorities were simply not allowed to hit students. The teachers in my family liked it that way. So did others I knew.

I think the problem is more the kinds of schools we have today -- with perhaps a change in what we expect from students as well. In the Times article it was noted that years ago students who didn't fit into the school system were counseled to get jobs. Now we want everyone to finish high school. Hell, Bill Clinton wanted everyone to finish two years of college as well. This is absurd.

Compounding the problem is the rise of the megabureaucratic school. Disorder of any sort is anathema to the megabureaucratic school. That's why we get zero tolerance programs. Even the slightest hint of disorder is apparently not to be tolerated. Arresting a 14 year old for not wearing the proper clothes? What is this, Saudi Arabia?

I'm just glad I don't have to attend such schools.

[junyo]

I'm 31 years old, and I can tell you that in Virginia, early to mid 1980's, teachers were still handing out yard long wooden justice (although it was dying out at that point). Teachers, not principals or administrators. And I know for a fact it kept my hyper ass in line, especially after I learned to sign my mother's signature. I would beg for a teacher to send a note home.

[Steven Crane]

The skimpy top WAS distracting... having the cops come yank the girl from school certainly isn't normal.

[Rebecca]

Hormones exist whether dress codes do or not. To my mind, requiring a certain standard of dress merely demands the students demonstrate respect for the institution they're in, the (alleged) purpose for being there, and for their fellow students. The only time I can dress "how I choose to" is in my time not at work, not in a public forum. Dress codes exist in most spheres, for good reason.

I think the problem with schools today (in part) is that teachers are not allowed to discipline - they can't even say something is 'wrong' or 'bad'! That would be "imposing their 'truth' on another" - and parents are more absentee and complacent than is healthy for their children. Granted, many kids are decent and law-abiding - but without any enforced guidelines, how's a kid to know when they've reached the limits of acceptable behavior?

[Rebecca]

That being said, arresting a student for violating a dress code??? Waaaaay over the top. Not at all "appropriate force".

[Will Spencer]

A good friend of mine had a 12yr old daughter.

In school one day, she told one of her little friends that she wanted to kill her mother.

A teacher overheard the conversation.

Wham. The police were called and the 12yr old was taken to jail. My friend had to arrange a $75,000 bond to get his daughter out of jail.

His daughter was released only on the conditions that she not be allowed near her mother, because the court put in place an automatic restraining order. My friend was forced to rent an apartment and live there with his daughter.

Kids fantasize. Kids talk. Kids act like kids.

Zero tolerance is zero clue.

[Rebecca]

I agree. Zero tolerance takes zero intelligence.