When Students Attack

The Hartford Advocate ^ | February 27, 2003 | Chris Harris

[cgbg]

When the lights go out in a classroom at Fox Middle School, teachers who work there know that the smart thing to do is run...

[cgbg]

I am amazed that the local "alternative" rag had the courage to print this article. As you can see the liberals who run the Hartford public schools are trying to hide the fact that they are accessories after the fact to a series of youth criminal acts. The Hartford public school system is child abuse, and the school board and administrators who fail to turn the criminals in class over to the police are imho aiding and abetting criminal activity.

Where is the NEA? Why won't they support discipline in the schools to protect their own union members?

Where are the leaders of the Democratic Party? They run Hartford and have for every year in modern history.

The next time some liberal politician tells you they care about the children and the schools hand them this article.

btw, Floridians take note. One of the accessories after the fact in this criminal activity was hired by a Florida school district identified in the article.

Don't say you weren't warned!

[AppyPappy]

I'm always amazed at parents who won't let their kids go to the mall because it is dangerous but willingly send them to a dangerous school.

[gunnedah]

This shows you what the government can really do, it is time to take America back from these blow hard liberals and the lawyers who manipulate the law to their advantage.
With everything going on in America today and the rage it is time for a Revolution in some form.
Laws only pertain to the law abiding and innocent and rights only apply to the criminals, something here is out of order!
If the only way to acquire rights is to become a criminal, then the system encourages one to become a crook.

[buffyt]

My sons wouldn't use the restrooms while they attended public school. They were filthy, dangerous, and had no walls between the stalls. When they got home every day at 4pm, they ran to the bathroom. And this is a very small town in Texas!

[Dataman]

What do little thugs grow up to be?

[A Vast RightWing Conspirator]

Does W's 'leave no child behind' empty slogan have antything to do with this?

[bimbo]

I can only assume that the citizens of Connecticut want this situation … they refuse to vote for the alternative at each election.

[RaceBannon]

And when Sheff VS Oniell goes into full effect, those same dicipline problems will be sent to Windsor, Bloomfield, Whethersfield...and then, when those kids are suspended 3 times in a month, and those schools finally expell the kids, the school systems will be at fault. Not he kids.

[RippleFire]

BUMP

[ofMagog]

Although he has obviously seen it, I suggest FReepers send an email to Governor John G. Rowland with a link to FR and the article, congratulating his state on making FreeRepublic:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/853634/posts

http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:4453

Governor.Rowland@po.state.ct.us

His address is:

Governor John G. Rowland
Governor's Office
State Capitol
210 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106

[Martyboy1]

Sounds like it's time to begin sterilizing people who keep producing liabilities like these kids. Obviously, the "parent(s)" aren't involved at all in their child's life...and so this is what we get...and so why allow idiots to reproduce? Welcome to our future...unfortunately :(

[ofMagog]

Following email sent to the governor:

Governor Roland:

Congratulations on your state having made FreeRepublic

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/853634/posts

with this article posted today:

http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:4453

It looks like Connecticut has gone down the tube. Why would any industry want to locate in your state with such a terrible eudcational system?

[cgbg]

And when Sheff VS Oniell goes into full effect, those same dicipline problems will be sent to Windsor, Bloomfield, Whethersfield...and then, when those kids are suspended 3 times in a month, and those schools finally expell the kids, the school systems will be at fault. Not he kids

My understanding of the settlement iis that the majority of kids in these really bad schools will probably stay there, since presumably most of their parents don't care about education and won't bother to send them to a suburban "magnet" school.

That settlement will divide the Hartofrd community into "haves" who go to magnet schools and "have nots" who stay in horrendous Hartford schools.

After reading this article I began to understand why the minority community in Hartford was so accepting of Clinton regardless of his endless criminal and unethical behavior. All of it fell within the bounds of "normal" behavior at their public schools!

I was hoping that this thread could also get into how these problems could be resolved.

My proposals (are ou listening governor RINO?):

(1) Treat youthful offenders as adults.

(2) Jail any teacher or administrator who attempts to cover up a criminal act.

(3) Jail parents of children who commit criminal acts.

(4) Close all schools in areas of town that are unsafe due to significant crime in the neighborhood.

(5) Instead of teaching kids about "diversity" and "black history" start teaching them about moraiity and responsibiiity for their own actions.

(6) Take one really bad kid a year and put him in the stock in front of the old state house so passersby can spit at him. It worked for the Puritans. It can work for Connecticut today.

[OldPossum]

Why not post the entire article? When I clicked it on, it came up in tiny type that was too difficult to read.

[AppyPappy]

Kick them out. It is better to have them in jail than locked in school with our kids.

[AppyPappy]

For one hting, it's a copyright violation. It also may be owned by the same people as the Washington Post.

[LoneGOPinCT]

Living in one of Hartford's border towns, I can attest to that. Our high school underwent a major renovation between 5 and 7 years ago. Basically gutted inside and replaced with new everything. Our system has always had its' share of "Project Concern" kids and others from Hartford when I was there through the 80's, but as the screwel system in Hartford continued it's downward spiral, more and more city kids began entering our system.

Walk down the hallways today, and it looks like the stereo-typical inner city screwel you see on tv. Urban graffitti inside and out, broken fixtures, vandalism, etc. Once Sheff v. O'Neill gets forced upon us, it'll only be a matter of time before the city's violence makes its' way to our screwel yards. It won't be an improvement of the educational system, it will be a degredation of successful systems to the level of the non-performing ones.

My father-in-law is a teacher in the south-western part of the state in a small town that neighbors a big-city. He is considered (and rightly so) one of the top teachers in the system. It has gotten to the point now where he is counting down the days until he is eligible for retirement. If they were to offer him an early retirement package with health care included, he would walk out the door today.

Teachers make an easy target sometimes (I enjoy bashing them myself), but I wouldn't put my FIL in that category. The situation is very problematic even if you ignore the NEA problem for a minute. Good teachers are getting frustrated with the fact that the inmates (students not union teachers) are running the asylum and they have no recourse. More and more quality teachers are either quitting education all together or moving to private schools. Not only do they have to worry about the usual ill-behaved, mouthy, wise-a$$ kids anymore, they now have to worry about getting beat up. Can't carry a side-arm ya' know. As if the teachers union wasn't doing a good enough job of destroying the public screwel system on it's own, you can now add to the situation that good teachers are fleeing in droves.

[toothless]

"Why not post the entire article? When I clicked it on, it came up in tiny type that was too difficult to read."

Might I suggest Mozilla (www.mozilla.org). It will actually let you resize ANY font, unlike Internet Explorer.

It is a godsend for people with poor vision like myself.

Not to mention it blocks popups.

[/shamelessplug]

[ladylib]

Expel them. If they are on the streets causing trouble, arrest them. If they are not causing trouble, leave them alone.

Keeping them in school is not going to help them because they don't want to learn. States should be lowering their school drop-out age, not raising it. Society has to learn that some kids are "throw aways." Let the criminal justice system handle them if they get out of line, but get them out of the schools.

The argument that they must stay in school in order to become productive members of society is a sham. They will not become productive members of society just because they are confined to a school all day. Schools shouldn't be child care institutions.

[LouD]

This is not just an isolated case; There are schools like this all over the country.

I've been substitute teaching in an urban school district while between jobs, and the attitude on some of the high school (and yes, even a few of the middle school) kids is unbelieveable - and I'm a 225 lb powerlifter - and I go in to sub situations in that kind of school like Patton taking over Third Army. (I model myself on the warm and welcoming Drill Sergeant who greeted my "cattle car" as it arrived at Basic Training) I can't imagine what a "mild mannered" teacher goes through.

I throw discipline problems out of class - I figure they don't pay me enough to take any BS. I had one HS Junior who I was throwing out, who came up and grabbed my shoulder as I wrote him up. I instinctively whirled around, knocked his hand off me, and cocked back my right. I swear the kid soiled himself. Fortunately, I didn't put him through the blackboard, although he surely would have deserved it. Why? Because I would now be fighting a lawsuit. I recently spoke to a 20 year teaching veteran who broke up a fight between two fifth graders; Nobody was hurt, but she's now being sued, and defending herself from charges of racism, because one of the parent couldn't believe their "little darling" did anything wrong (or more likely, the single mom parent figures this teacher has more in her retirement account than she'll see in her entire lifetime)