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We’ve had issues with and concerns with schools, unions, sometimes teachers themselves, and students. We’ve also watched as liberal policies create a dangerous environment for students and teachers alike.
We saw this play out with the Parkland tragedy, and we’ve watched several iterations ever since. In the last three months multiple schools have landed in the news because a student attacked or shot a teacher. In Virginia, it was a first-grader who shot his teacher. As we’ve now come to find out, the student was well known to be such a danger to himself and others that A. at least one parent was to accompany and STAY with him at school, and B. the child was patted down and supposed to have backpack or school bag checked daily.
On the day of that shooting, neither of those things happened. And he shot his teacher. Oh, but there is much more to this story.
A Virginia teacher who was shot and seriously wounded by her 6-year-old student filed a lawsuit Monday seeking $40 million in damages from school officials, accusing them of gross negligence and of ignoring multiple warnings the day of the shooting that the boy was armed and in a “violent mood.”
Abby Zwerner, a first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, was shot in the hand and chest on Jan. 6 as she sat at a reading table in her classroom. The 25-year-old teacher spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and required four surgeries.
In the aftermath, the superintendent was fired and the assistant principal was fired. As the lawsuit states, the school was well aware that the child was a danger to himself and everyone around him. There was an incident of him choking his kindergarten teacher the year before. Yet, as we discovered with the Parkland shooter, there were major warning signs that were ignored.
Another teacher was brutally attacked by a high school kid supposedly over a Nintendo Switch. It took five adults to pull that kid off of her. As it turns out,he’d been charged with battery THREE times in 2019. And he should’ve been in a more specialized school, except for one problem.
According to Fox there used to be a school dedicated to troubled teens in Flagler County, for pupils who struggled to function in a traditional classroom environment.
That included those who had been convicted of a crime, or were considered too violent to attend classes on traditional campuses.
But Flagler County voters failed to pass a 50-cent property tax levy to pay for the school back in 2013.
Sheriff Staly added: ‘We had a school resource officer assigned to that mini-school if you will, and that’s been eliminated.
OH. There’s that defund the police thing again. There are a great many districts around the country who’ve kicked SRO’s (school resource officers) out of the schools because it makes the teachers and/or the kids feel “unsafe.”
However, when some of the districts ALSO have liberal policies that bring violent kids back into the schools with very little oversight, that puts the other students, teachers, and staff in danger. Faculty and students found that out at East High School in Denver just a few weeks ago.
A student, who had previously faced felony charges in a different district, was given pat-downs every day at East High school by faculty. Come to find out, the district was asked if this kid could be taught remotely and the district refused.
Tay Anderson, a member of the Denver school board defended the district policies.
This particular part of the interview caught the attention of many in the Denver area.
NEW: Denver School Board @DirectorTay says students who make mistakes shouldn't be removed from in-person learning. Even if the student is charged with shooting someone, as long as the shooting is off school grounds. #copolitics pic.twitter.com/7bCCW9Wz4Q
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) March 28, 2023
Oh. Isn’t that special???!! Commit violence OFF campus and you’ll still be allowed on school grounds. That’s some magical thinking right there! Especially given that East High school isn’t the only school in the district who’s been dealing with violent students. A student accused of attempted murder was allowed to stay in school while the case progresses. Again with the magical thinking that the student will only commit a crime OFF campus.
The Denver school union wants changes. The Denver school board does not. The current “discipline matrix” in place only works if it is utilized correctly. It hasn’t been.
The principal of the Denver Center for International Studies (DCIS) in the Baker neighborhood sought a restraining order against a student after the principal learned of a text message threat from late January.
The court record included screen shots of the text.
A student at DCIS wrote: “About to shoot up the school and only go for the principal only.”
In seeking the restraining order, the principal told the court that information was shared with her that showed the student may have access to guns.
The judge granted the restraining order for the principal. Guess what the district told the principal? Just GUESS.
The court records show the DCIS principal emailed the judge three days after getting the order.
— Marshall Zelinger (@Marshall9News) April 4, 2023
The email detailed a meeting between the principal, supervisor & DPS attorney. The principal said she was given three options if she followed through with the restraining order. pic.twitter.com/jli4WRxPDZ
In other words, coddle the student and the safety of the principal or anyone else in that school is of no concern.
Families come and go from schools for a variety of reasons. But Denver Public Schools' insistence that students charged with violent crimes will stay in class over the objection of principals, teachers, and law enforcement appears to have more families rethinking their options. https://t.co/pLQc4LXf20
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) April 4, 2023
Liberal policies are putting our communities in danger. And, liberal policies enacted by school boards are not only causing educational problems, they are causing safety issues for both teachers and students. And yet, the response of those in charge is to stick their heads in the sand and hope the problem magically disappears.
Feature Photo Credit: classroom via Pixabay, cropped and modified
NTSOG says: “[T]here used to be a school dedicated to troubled teens in Flagler County, for pupils who struggled to function in a traditional classroom environment.”
Same here in Victoria [Australia]. The one special school for really disturbed children was shut – sticking such kids in mainstream is so much cheaper and meets the current liberal belief system that such children are just ‘misunderstood’. Often such children are placed in special schools for children with intellectual impairment at the discretion of senior government officials most of whom have never taught in schools and are paid to keep politicians happy.* Disturbed children who are in the normal range intellectually are far too smart for their intellectually disabled age peers in special schools and cause mayhem. They drain precious resources. Furthermore children presenting with underlying severe psychiatric issues as well as severe behaviour need true specialist services to meet their own needs. Their presence in schools, whose staff-members are generally mostly female, also requires more men who can both model appropriate [male] behaviour but also take down such students when they present dangerous behaviour. [In 1979 I was hired to teach at a Chicago special school for teenagers. I was the only male. I was immediately given a class of the worst behaved students because I was a strong fit male in a staff comprised of middle-aged ladies. If other students misbehaved I would be called out of my classroom to deal with students whose own teachers could not/would not manage them.] Bureaucrats don’t like to hear anything about problem behaviour; they want to cling to their fanciful PC beliefs and ensure that no negative publicity will ensue which might jeopardise their annual bonuses. I have consulted in schools in which all staff, including experienced male teachers have been fearful of certain students. Such students should not be dumped in schools, whether mainstream or special, but should be in specialist institutional treatment settings staffed with specialists in children’s psychiatric services.
*There was a time when those in senior positions in education department bureaucracies had actually taught in schools and knew and understood what it is to deal with difficult children. Now those in the upper echelons rarely have actual clinical skills/experience in teaching. They are simply administrators more likely to have a degree in business administration.
Nina Bookout says: Oh my. I agree with the treatment settings. And yet the liberals persist, everywhere.
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