Fifth grader charged after bus fight over snack cake [9 yr old beaten to unconsciousness]

AP ^ | April 2, 2004 | Staff writer

[TaxRelief]

For discussion and education purposes only.

Greensboro, North Carolina-AP -- A North Carolina fifth-grader has been charged with assault for knocking out a boy in a school bus fight over a snack cake.

(snip) ...According to the principal, when the boy sitting next to him asked for a bite, Kevin said no and was smacked in the face with a stuffed Tweety Bird. Kevin hit back, but was slammed against a window and hit in the back.

Then he fell in the aisle and was stomped.

School officials say when the bus driver pulled the aggressor off him, Kevin was unconscious.

[TaxRelief]

STOP THIS NOW!

There is no way to stop it. You can send your kids to public school and pray, OR you can send your kids to a good, safe, private school, OR you can Home School.

[tracer]

Or, in some quarters, "no child's behind left".......

[TaxRelief]

WOW. Are those cakes really that good?

The truth? They taste sickly-sweet, but are highly addictive. They are very inexpensive.

[TaxRelief]

So if people want to keep their kids out of the military, they should put them on Ritalin? Don't let that get out in Dem circles--they'll all be poisoning their kids with amphetamines to keep them from being drafted. </ hyperbole.

[Dan from Michigan]

5th and a 3rd grader. Probably a big size difference.

I hope the 3rd grader has a 7th grade brother or cousin ready to teach him a lesson.

[TaxRelief]

All this talk about Zebra Cakes, during lent, is making me insane. Now you come on the thread with your tasty name...

[Dan from Michigan]

That sounds SO familiar. Substitute an organization I used to be a PAC treasurer of and some different individuals, and it's almost a duplicate.

Internal politics suck.

[petitfour]

Well, you don't have much longer to go. But, I must say Zebra Cakes are NO comparison to petitfours. Unless you're talkin' the kind from a box. I cannot go to my favorite bakery without purchasing a couple dozen petitfours.

[Donaeus]

I'm so happy your children are at home with you!!

[TaxRelief]

There is no bakery, that I know of, in NC that sells petit fours. I have to get lucky occasionally when I travel up North. Any tips?

[petitfour]

Where in NC are you? Wherever we have lived, I have searched for a place that makes the kind of petitfours I grew up loving in Mississippi. I got lucky in our current location because I asked a friend where I could find a good bakery. When I walked in to the recommended place, I was hooked. They keep petitfours fresh and ready to sell every day. Mmmmm. You can always call a few bakeries and ask if they make petitfours, but you need to make sure their idea and your idea are the same. I like the kind made from white cake (very light) and iced with a white glaze/icing. Most bakeries put a little sweet pea (the flower) type flower on top.

[Tax-chick]

"Harry and David," the mail-order fruit vendor, has petits-fours. I haven't ordered them, but their baklava is unbelievable.

[SpookBrat]

Read later my dear. I'm off to clean the church building. :) Thanks for the ping.

[new cruelty]

I am going to buy a few dozen boxes tonight to see if they are worth fighting over.

I'll keep everyone posted.

[TaxRelief]

You have Freepmail.:)

[TaxRelief]

Harry and David wants 40 dollars for 12 so-so Petits fours. Ugh!.

[Tax-chick]

Well, so much for that! Have you tried Swiss Colony, the ones with all the chocolate cakes at Christmas?

Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls are my favorie!

[Aquinasfan]

I was none of the things you attribute to yourself when I graduated from high school.

I suspect that that's in spite of your schooling, not because of it. In fact, it's quite possible that you've developed habits from your years of schooling that you're not aware of.

I had a good family, and went to Church regularly, which is what I credit to keeping me alive, literally, during my school years. Unfortunately for me, my parents were immigrants, and had no idea of what was going on.

More Gatto:

Consider the strange possibility that we have been deliberately taught to be irresponsible and to dislike each other for some good purpose. I am not being sarcastic or even cynical. I spent 19 years as a student, and 30 more as a school teacher and in all that time I was seldom asked to be responsible, unless you mistake obedience and responsibility for the same thing, which they certainly are not. Whether student or teacher, I gave reflective obedience to strangers for 49 years. If that isn't a recipe for irresponsibility then nothing is. In school your payoff comes from giving up your personal responsibility, just doing what you're told by strangers even if that violates the core principles of your household. There isn't any way to grow up in school, school won't let you. As I watched it happen, it takes three years to break a kid, 3 years confined to an environment of emotional neediness, songs, smiles, bright colors, cooperative games, these work much better than angry words and punishment. Constant supplication for attention creates a chemistry whose products are the characteristics of modern school children -- whining, treachery, dishonesty, malice, cruelty and similar traits. Ceaseless competition for attention in the dramatic fishbowl of the classroom, I have never seen this dynamic examined in the public press -- not in 50 years of reading the public press. Ceaseless competition for attention in the dramatic fishbowl of the classroom, reliably delivers cowardly children, toadies, school stoolies, little people sunk into chronic boredom, little people with no apparent purpose, just like caged rats, pressing a bar for sustenance, who develop eccentric mannerisms on a periodic reinforcement schedule.  Those of you who took rat psychology in college will know what I'm referring to -- just like the experience of rat psychology, the bizarre behavior kids display is a function of the reinforcement schedule in the confinement of schooling to a large degree. I'm certain of that. Children like this need extensive management.

[Not A Snowbird]

Time to dust off the infamous "twinkie defense".

[Libertina]

Well, some are committing the abuse and some are taking it.