Posted on 04/26/2005 11:09:31 AM PDT by Reagan79
Students Rewarded for Tattling at School
Tue Apr 26, 9:26 AM ET
Add to My Yahoo! U.S. National - AP
By DOUG GROSS, Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA - For a growing number of students, the easiest way to make a couple of hundred dollars has nothing to do with chores or after-school jobs, and everything to do with informing on classmates.
Photo AP Photo
Tragedies like last month's deadly shooting at a Red Lake, Minn., school have prompted more schools to offer cash and other prizes — including pizza and premium parking spots — to students who report classmates who carry guns, drugs or alcohol, commit vandalism or otherwise break school rules.
"For kids of that age, it's hard for them to tell on their peers. This gives them an opportunity to step up if they know something that will help us make an arrest," said James Kinchen, an assistant school superintendent in Houston County, Ga., which earlier this month started offering rewards of up to $100 for reporting relatively minor crimes like vandalism or theft and $500 for information about a crime, or plans for a crime, involving a gun.
Critics call them "snitch" programs, saying they are a knee-jerk reaction to student violence. Some education professionals fear such policies could create a climate of distrust in schools and turn students against each other.
"There are very few things that I can think of that would be more effective at destroying that sense of community," said Bruce Marlowe, an education psychology professor at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I.
About 2,000 schools and colleges, from Honolulu to Palm Beach County, Fla., have adopted Student Crime Stoppers programs like Houston County, according to the nonprofit Crime Stoppers U.S.A., which began helping schools set up such programs in 1983.
Most schools offer an anonymous phone line or a school drop box for tips. Rewards range from cash to gift certificates to free parking passes.
Elsewhere in Georgia, Model High School in Rome uses the proceeds from its candy and soda sales to pay students up to $100 for tips about drugs or weapons on campus or other crimes.
The goal: "Heading off some problems rather than waiting until they happen and responding afterward," said Tim Hensley, a school system spokesman.
Some students fear classmates with a grudge or set on making some quick money may level false accusations or plant drugs or weapons in their lockers.
But Houston County's Kinchen said: "That will sort itself out. Our officers deal with these kind of things every day; they can find out which kid is being set up and which kid is telling the truth."
At Model High, some of the 650 students complain that the program wrongly implies their school is dangerous. In a Rome News-Tribune cartoon, the school's official mascot was mockingly changed from the Blue Devils to the "Tattlers."
No one has received a reward yet at Model High.
"Everyone just thinks it's a joke. No one is going to tell on their friends for cash," said senior Katie Burnes, president of the school's National Honor Society chapter. "If someone brings a gun to school or is doing drugs in the bathroom, no one has to pay me to let the teachers know."
Frank Farley, an educational psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, said students should be taught to speak up without being offered a reward.
"This idea of surveillance — there's something unsavory there," Farley said. "We're familiar with the history of that in the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany." He added: "I think it's bad civics."
We already reward adults for information that helps solve crimes.
Principled young people will report this kind of behavior without requiring a reward.
Orwell wouldn't be surprised.
Well, based on my own experience in high school, I always thought that the public schools had a sort of prison culture. Encouraging students to rat each other out is just another manifestation of this, and will probably result in dire results when they really start turning on one another. JMHO...
How much cash are we talking about? Everyone has their price.
Principled young people will report this kind of behavior without requiring a reward.
Yeah, our schools are full of those.
The best description I've heard is "state-sponsored dating service".
Just one more reason to abolish government schools.
IT is GREAT
People SHOULD learn to report crimes.
Children think you are a 'rat' to tell on someone, but you are being a GOOD CITIZEN not to help a criminal.
A 'rat' is some one who commits a crime with help of others, and then turns in those others in order to save himself. That is a rat- not the definition it has grown into where you are 'ratting' on someone if you tell.
You are not 'ratting' you are a WITNESS.
The only problem I have is with payment... this could encourage people to make up things in order to be paid.
I feel the same way.
A solution is to make school free but optional.
It's wasted on people that don't want to be there anyway.
That is exactly what I was thinking. During High School I moved from an excellent private school to Egypt to a public school in Mississippi. All it was, was a big old youth detention center. Many of the classes were completely out of control and rampant disrespect. Sadly this was supposed to be one of the best public schools in the state.
One of my daughter's friends said a girl who was jealous of another girl at a local Christian High School went to authorities and said the girl was planning a Columbine. She stole the rival girl's prayer list and said it was a hit list. The girl was arrested and questioned, let go after it was determined they had nothing to hold her on. I think this kind of 'tattling' can open up a lot of problems.
It does remind me of the Dilbert cartoon where the boss announced that programmers would be paid for each bug they found. Wally's response: "I'm gonna go write myself a new car."
you are not 'ratting someone out" if you tell about a crime- you are being a GOOD CITIZEN.
A 'rat' is somoen who commits a crime with others and then tells on them in order to save himself.
I bet crime goes down in this area
Snitches - They're a dieing breed.
The old divide and conquer routine. First date rape now report anything even if unfounded or untrue. Doubleplus Good!!
Peer pressure is a b*#@h.
If it takes a cash reward for someone to step up and inform authorities that someone is doing something illegal, then that's fine by me as long as it proves to make things safer.
Kids are very resourceful. They'll "tell" on someone "planning" on a violent crime for the $500 reward, but ensure that the consequences for that person are minimal (no other evidence, subsequent time spent lying to - and flirting with - the school counselors gets them out of class, etc). They split the money and go have a nice weekend.
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