Posted on 01/10/2008 6:12:45 PM PST by Cagey
COLUMBIA, Md. - The crime? A cafeteria food fight.
The reward for information? Thirty bucks. A Maryland high school wants students to name names behind the flying cheeseburgers in a recent food fight.
But now the principal says the reward offer is being withdrawn after students complained.
Seems nobody likes a snitch.
Homemade videos keep surfacing in the Baltimore suburb of Columbia, where the school is located.
The "Stop Snitching" videos are being distributed on the streets, threatening people who co-operate with police.
Officials say no injuries were reported in the December food fight but at least two students were suspended.
No reward money was paid to students and Howard County school officials are reconsidering such offers, school system spokeswoman Patti Caplan said.
She noted that it "was not just food being thrown. There were water bottles, trays and utensils."
Cash rewards have been offered in the past for information leading to those responsible for vandalism, graffiti or theft, Caplan said.
But some students argued against paying reward money over a minor incident like a food fight.
"A $30 offer might be tempting, but is it just?" student Paige Eckley wrote in the Wilde Lake High School student newspaper.
I have an idea. Have the teachers present during lunch.
Oooops, I forgot that was negotiated out of the “work” section in their contracts.
Bump it up to $200 and see.
Schools have long encouraged snitching, but this was unusually flagrant. The inability to trust other people is learned in school, and may lead to failed relationships in adult lives.
A reason to homeschool if you ask me.
ping
I’d negotiate that out of my contract too, if I was a teacher in a “school” of this sort. In “schools” where things are this out of control, all teachers and staff should be armed with tasers and given blanket immunity from prosecution for using them on students who don’t instantly do what they’re told. These “schools” are overrun with gang members and unsafe for civilized kids to attend. Big strong high school aged boys flinging trays across a crowded, chaotic cafeteria could easily cause a head injury with permanent brain damage.
As it is, most teachers in this sort of “school” don’t dare try to impose any discipline, since they have good reason to fear violent retaliation against themselves and their families outside of school. The article says this “school” is located in a Baltimore suburb, but it sounds like large numbers of hard-core inner city Baltimore kids are being bused in.
Fine provided the students have the same. I’ve met many a teacher who could use much more than a good taser.
They’d be better off spending the money on a camera in the cafeteria. I thought that was standard in all schools these days.
So you are saying it is easier to victimize folks who have been home schooled? That's the best advertisement for public schools that I've seen on FR in a long time.
I smell a lawsuit, with interest being added on to the $30.
Wilde Lake is a mixture of yuppies and gangbangers. Columbia is a planned city from the 1960s, where the mansions and the projects are intertwined so everyone can live in harmony. I used to own a house there, but we sold it after our neighborhood was redistricted into Wilde Lake High School.
We will never run out of new reasons to home school. We did, however, long ago pass the point at which there were enough.
If teachers were allowed to maintain order in the schools, it would be a heck of a lot easier to hire and retain good people as teachers. As it is, no one in their right mind would agree to work in a place where no one can do anything to stop dangerous chaos. If you offer a workplace like this, you shouldn’t expect any one who isn’t in chronic need of a good tasering to accept a job there.
LOL! We can see how well THAT ludicrous notion has worked out!
I’m a student at Wilde Lake and was there during that lunch. You really shouldnt believe the media...It wasnt some CRAZY food fight..I can literally name off the top of my head what was thrown, a bagel, sandwich, and a milk carton. Sure theres a risk of allergy..but no one deserved to be suspended, they should of had to clean the cafeteria up. The whole situation was handled by the adminstration the completely wrong way. Money should not have been offered.
And a couple of points.
-whoever said we should use that money to by cameras...we do have cameras in the cafeteria, what provoked our anger(the students) was that the administration could in fact look at the tapes, and they did (they suspeneded 2people) but they wanted US to tell on our peers, for money.
-also the other controversy was that while filing the mandatory incident report out, our principal “forgot” to mention the fact that he was offering money, therefore he has a meeting with the board of ed this week.
-and to who tried to make my school sound barbaric and crazy...you have no idea what you’re talking about. wilde lake is actually an amazing school, with diversity, something that howard county schools usually lacks. this incident was not racially charged, just teens being teens. that doesnt justify the actions but it does prove the point that no matter what school you go to, there will be flaws.
-moving because you were in the wilde lake district was a mistake. wilde lake gives an education that no other school in howard county could offer. if you’re scared of the diversity, i’d love to give you an open invitation to the real world, where there are different people of different races, religions, and ethnicity. Wilde lake prepares us for the real world like no other school.
-homeschooling is a rediculous solution. if you’re so scared of public school(which may i remind you is a great taste of the actual diverse society) why have kids? so you can keep them in your living room and sharpen their own pencils? keeping them from the “bad guys” wont protect them, they’ll just be completely defenseless when mommy finally lets go.
also, no one from baltimore city goes to our school because were in HOWARD COUNTY.
oh and, we have foam plate things.
so if it was thrown, it would most likely drop 1 foot infront of the thrower.
you all bring up goodpoints, just out of sheer ignorance.
not your fault, just the medias!
If you are real, you are a shining example of public school.
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