Unwashed Village
General Discussion => Unwashed Village => Topic started by: Na_Day on November 05, 2007, 06:36:23 PM
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I'm really annoyed today.
Today I got a call from a friend who has worked many years, successfully and without incident, as the head of security for several schools. Today, for doing the right thing, he got canned.
Technically, he's being fired for putting his hands on a child. Apparently he was not supposed to interfere until either (A) a child attacks another or (B) the child attacks a faculty member, and the 'excuse' of him endangering himself isn't good enough for his employers. The full story goes something like this:
Two kids were yelling it out across a hallway, looking like they were going to duke it out. He steps between the two. One of them insults the other and walks off. The other, not wanting to chase after the kid in view of the chief of security, begins flailing his arms right next to a plate glass window. Seeing the obvious potential danger, he steps in from behind and does a policeman's hold. One arm across the stomach, one locking the right arm. He talks the kid down, quietly, and takes him off to the side into a break center to sit down and talk things out further. He resolves the situation, and goes to talk to the teacher about the other kids continued harassment of the kid he talked to. The kid had no issue with what he did at all.
When he arrives, the office is in an uproar. I arrived maybe ten minutes later. I get to watch the video they are screaming at him about, and the principle asks me, as his friend, to explain why he has to be fired over this. All I could manage to say was "Because the leaders of the next generation are spineless cowards afraid of defending someone doing his job against litigation."
When did this type of mentality invade school management? I'm just curious.
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i feel bad saying this, but.... catholic school?
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Pathetic :/
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I blame zero tolerance policies in general.
Seems like the kid got a pretty fair treatment. We got rulers along our fingers and a paddling. The bad kind. Not the kind BC pays for.
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I went to public school. If the guy had thrown the kid through the plate glass window he'd be fine, as long as he planted a few comic books on the kid and said he was wearing a trench coat.
Then again there's that whole video thing.
But yeah, that's retarded. I figured his job would be to keep the kid from killing himself on pointy glass. I would have fought it. But then again I'd have nothing better to do if I'd just lost my job.
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i feel bad saying this, but.... catholic school?
Public school in Montgomery county, Maryland.
As for the other questions, he is tempted to fight it, he has grounds to. But by the same token, he doesn't want to work with people who are that unwilling to go to bat for him in the first place. He doesn't even care enough to sue, cause he'd rather be over and done with it.
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=blink=
Thats one mentally disturbed kid. Who flails these days?
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We got rulers along our fingers and a paddling. The bad kind. Not the kind BC pays for.
Well, it's not like I pay a lot.
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As Doombot mentioned, ZT is no doubt largely responsible. It's having an affect on everyone, both adults and students these days.
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i feel bad saying this, but.... catholic school?
Public school in Montgomery county, Maryland.
Ah the armpit of the United States. Your friend is doing absolutely the right thing. Leave and get out of that state! It is a cess pit of misery and political corruption that has never really recovered from the Civil War. I was unfortunate enough to grow up there and I am never going back. Not that Maryland has a lock on spinelessness of course...
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Seems like the kid got a pretty fair treatment. We got rulers along our fingers and a paddling. The bad kind. Not the kind BC pays for.
Thanatos has to make a living somehow...
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litigation.
There's your problem right there.
Blame parents who sue schools.
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The high school my kids go to has 6 local police officers stationed there at all times, aside from a 12 man security team. Nobody enters the building without showing a picture ID and they scan it when you go in, and give you a visitors pass. They even bring the canine unit in once a week or so to make sure nobody is stashing stuff in their lockers. All this , and they can still buy weed at school with no problem. If someone from a gang harrasses them, they keep their mouth shut. The poor teachers are the ones that take the brunt of it all.:( They get told to "fuck off" when told to pay attention, kids throw desks, chairs, knives in some cases. It's time to give the control back to the adults. Too many ppl today don't discipline their kids, hell, some don't even watch them.:(
Personally, I liked it better when the gym coach could/would kick your ass all the way to the principals office if you misbehaved.
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Or maybe suspend/expel kids who just aren't cutting it. Let the parents deal with them full time until they realise that they really do need to take some responsibility for their kids' behaviour.
If it means the kid misses enough classes to be held back a year, they get held back a year. They get taught a valuable lesson about consequence AND have the chance to learn all the lessons they weren't paying attention to the previous year.
The concept of "free education" is a major downfall. I don't know if it's the schools saying "They're not paying for it, so I'm not teaching them any more than I have to" or the parents saying "My child is smart enough to go through school, I don't care if they're illiterate" but somehow there are a whole lot of kids getting to high school who can't read fluidly. Most are beyond the "sound the word out" stage, but still have to read each word individually before stringing the sentence together.
/endrant
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My dad is always afraid of being sued over something he's had to do to solve a situation with kids. I know he's had to physically lift a child up and carry him to the office to wait for his parents. Even though he's the principal and knows exactly how far he's allowed to do whatever, there's always some insane-o parent willing to threaten because their special little angel was "mistreated" (read: properly handled) =P
sad world
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=blink=
Thats one mentally disturbed kid. Who flails these days?
*puts hand up*
seriously, sometimes when i've got some nervous energy or something and i need to get rid of it but there's really nothing to do but go into my room, shut the door, have a flail and feel a lot better about things
but sorry about your friend Na_Day. personally, i think they should bring back the strap cause teachers can't do thier jobs properly for fear of being sued or threatened or undermined etc etc and what good does writing lines do? nothing but waste paper and ink
kids know teachers aren't allowed to touch them etc and some of those kids are melicious. not a terribly good combination considering the stories i've heard of kids raping teachers, kids ganging up on teachers and staff, that head teacher here who got stabbed for trying to break up a fight....loads of people have said i'd make a good teacher but considering all the bad press, its no wonder schools are under staff
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=blink=
Thats one mentally disturbed kid. Who flails these days?
*puts hand up*
seriously, sometimes when i've got some nervous energy or something and i need to get rid of it but there's really nothing to do but go into my room, shut the door, have a flail and feel a lot better about things
Shenanigans.
SS or it didnt happen.
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Update:
My friend now has his job back, save in a different county (Howard county, if any of you are marylandites.) He's not happy with the change in venues but everyone decided it was for the best. He may be getting out of security following this, but he's not sure of what he'd do otherwise.