Going back to in-person learning after a year of online and hybrid learning is challenging for all grade levels-especially middle school.

Which is why when fights break out in middle schools, some area administrators think it is a fabulous idea to shut the school down for two weeks. Sweet. Just in time for the holidays! Who doesn’t want an extended holiday vacay?

Hit the “reset button” says the spokesperson from Reynolds School District in Fairview, Oregon. Dude, enough with the “reset buttons”. Wasn’t COVID the “reset”? Now, we’re adding fights in schools to the mix? So, let’s get this straight. Because of some middle schoolers starting fights in the classrooms, they are not the only ones who get sent home. The kids who were minding their business are also getting sent home, too. Why? Because “it’s not fair to everyone”. So, to make things equally fair across the board, all students lose and get thrown into the world of craptastic online learning for two weeks.

We are finding that some students are struggling with the socialization skills necessary for in-person learning, which is causing disruption in school for other students.”-Superintendent Danna Diaz

This is what happens after you pull them out of the classroom all year, and tell them they have to wear mandatory muzzles on their faces all day. Socialization skills? Really? This is what a 6-figure salaried superintendent comes up with. This. Send ’em home, send ’em ALL home! Because they can’t even.

We need to take care of this now. It’s urgent.”-Steve Padilla, Reynolds District Spokesperson

Y’all need to help some of these students catch up after a year of being out of the classroom, too. It’s urgent. Or, at least, it should be in order to receive your funding. According to a report shared at the Reynolds district board meeting last night, there were 35 instances of physical contact or aggression at the elementary level, with 19 instances of fighting or “mutual altercation.” Moving on to secondary, middle and high schools, there have been 148 instances of fighting or “mutual altercation,” and 21 instances of “physical altercation,” or pushing and shoving.

The train of thought goes something like this: take the kids out of the stressful situation so they can learn to work together through conflict without having to actually come into conflict because they are all locked up in their homes in isolation-separate from the person with whom they’ve experienced said conflict. Yep. That’s how middle school kids will finally learn their social skills and magically, in December, or after Christmas even, these tweens and teens will be perfect little cherubs in the classroom, right?

They’re so smart, these school officials! Profound logic at work right there!

While Reynolds Middle School is hitting the “reset” button and sending the little ruffians home, teachers and staff will work on “professional development” and “grade level reflection sessions”. What will they “reflect” upon? “Training for teachers to help students reflect on what’s going on at the school, how to change the school culture, and teaching students emotional regulation skills”, apparently.

Reynolds Middle School is serving as a “pilot school” for these so-called “reflection sessions”. Teachers and admins are taking TWO WEEKS to “reflect” on things while roughly 985 students are forced into online learning. According to this, Reynolds Middle School had a pretty dismal ranking to begin with and, in truth, has no business shutting their doors to these students for two weeks. Check out some of these stats:

Reading Proficiency Rank
#262 out of 277

Math Proficiency Rank
#255 out of 277″-US News, Reynolds Middle School

Reynolds also has a minority student enrollment at 77% and enrolls 80% economically disadvantaged students. And, as of Monday, they are sending them all home! They don’t care where home is, what their homelife is like, they just don’t want ’em at school because they need “reflection”. This from the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Health Authority:

Prioritize equity. Recognize the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black,
American Indian/Alaska Native, and Latino/a/x, Pacific Islander communities; students experiencing disabilities; students living in rural areas; and students and families navigating poverty and houselessness. Apply an equity-informed, anti-racist, and anti- oppressive lens to promote culturally sustaining and revitalizing educational systems that support every child.”-The Oregon Department of Education Ready Schools, Safe Learners Resiliency Framework for the 2021-22 School Year

So much for that anti-oppressive lens that is culturally sustaining and revitalizing and inclusive and intersectional and blah, blah, blah. The kids are staying the eff home for two weeks. They’ll keep their fighting to Instagram and SnapChat and teachers and administrators alike, will get a nice respite.

There is a big elephant in the room, too. And it’s this. We’re talking about blue-leaning cities in the Portland metro. It comes as no surprise that fights in schools in blue states and cities are on an increase. THIS is what happens when School Boards elect to cut budgeting for school resource officers (SROs). This just south of Fairview in the Salem-Keizer district:

In the first two months of full-time in-person instruction without school resource officers, suspensions and expulsions have been drastically reduced in Salem-Keizer schools — while fighting has increased.”-Joey Cappelletti, Keizertimes

Wow. I know, you’re shocked. The truth is, a student is more likely to get sent home for a COVID-19 exposure, four times removed, than as a consequence for starting a fight at school. I have even heard of instances where high school students show up reeking of marijuana, drunk and high and get sent home to “sleep it off” to return the next day. These students, in truth, don’t care about being in school. Now, students (who also do not care about being in school) who are fighting cannot simply be sent home because they may be “marginalized” and sending them home would be so unjust and unfair, so what does Reynolds Middle School do? Essentially, cancel school for the next two weeks so they can “regroup” by sending even the GOOD students home!

While dads in Louisiana took matters into their own hands and there were less fights in schools but don’t expect the dumbasses in Oregon to come up with the same strategy. That would involve actual work.

The age of the skyscraper is gone. This is the age of the housing project. Which is always a prelude to the age of the cave.”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

The age of elementary, middle and high school is gone. This is the age of virtual learning and endless, useless “professional development” sessions with groups of individuals who claim to be the “smart” ones and to care about our kids. Believe me, the cave is cannot be too far in the distance.

Photo Credit: xMizLitx/FlickR/Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)/Cropped