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Where are the Parents?

By: cmndr45 (Diary)  |  March 21st, 2013 at 08:22 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The stories are becoming all too familiar. A young child does something utterly harmless, and the “authorities” come down on him (or her) like a SWAT team. Or school administrators announce some outrageous new “rule” that 20 years ago would have gotten them fired.

Recent examples include:

Two 10 year-old girls running a lemonade stand suddenly find themselves confronted by armed police officers, telling them that they will have to “close it down” because it “violates health ordinances” – are you kidding me? A lemonade stand?

A 6 year old chases his friend around the playground, pointing his finger at him and yelling, “Bang! Bang!” And the school administrators suspend the child and convene a hearing to determine “what to do” about his “disturbing behavior.”

A young girl brings a “Hello, Kitty” bubble maker to school and is suspended and “investigated” because the toy (which is pink and white) vaguely resembled a gun.

And in what is probably the most absurd case of all, a 6-year old is suspended after (are you ready) chewing his Pop-Tart into a shape that sort of looked like a gun!

Then there is the school that proclaimed that home-made cupcakes will be allowed ONLY if they are for the child’s own use. They can no longer be brought to school to be shared with classmates – if treats are intended for distribution to other students, only “store-bought” bakery goods will henceforth be permitted.

Along similar lines, yet another school has forbidden students from distributing invitations to their birthday party. Why? Because, since typically only the friends of the student are invited, that might lead to (horrors!) “hurt feelings” among those who were not invited. Liberalism gone wild.

Finally, school administrators at one school have declared that hugging any child other than your own will now be prohibited, even for teachers and teachers’ assistants. A child falls and hurts herself? Too bad. Don’t you dare offer her even the slightest reassuring touch on the shoulder – you could be looking at accusations of “inappropriate touching” or worse, “child molestation.”

Absurd? Of course. Outrageous? Without a doubt.

But the more disturbing question in every one of these cases is this: Where are the parents? Why are they not storming the school with (metaphorically) torches and pitchforks? After all, the parents clearly have the higher moral authority here – these are their kids. They also far outnumber the school personnel, and they pay the salaries of these snotty little bureaucrats. However you look at it, the parents have the right to demand accountability from “public servants” who have run amok.

Instead, most parents sit back and do nothing. Why? Some may be fearful of being targeted by authorities themselves. Others simply don’t want to “make waves” or stand out from the flock of sheep.  But tolerating tyranny only promotes more tyranny. You either fight it, or you are encouraging it.

And, no, I don’t care if it was your child who was the target or not. My children are grown, but if any child in my kid’s school had been the victim of this kind of quasi-fascist garbage, I would have stormed into the principal’s office, finger in his (or her) face, warning them in the strongest terms that such nonsense will result in their sitting in a courtroom. I’ve done it.

So I ask again, when such obnoxious incidents occur, where are the parents?

 

 

COMMENTS

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  • plumely

    Well, I would say the left has done a great job of intimidating and villifying parents…so the parents of today are not my parents or your parents. Add to that the feminizing of males. And I am probably sure alot of parents don’t really have any objections to this Zero Tolerance BS.

  • streiff

    If you have kids in school you learn very quickly that where the education mafia talks about parental involvment, in reality they don’t want it.

    But the issue, I think, is best summarized by Glenn Reynolds (http://usat.ly/YaQsEL)

    “And that’s the problem with all of these cases. Our justification for putting massive amounts of taxpayer money into public schools is that they’re supposed to teach critical thinking. But stories like these — and they’re legion — suggest that the very people who are supposed to be teaching our kids how to think are largely incapable of critical thought themselves.

    A Pop Tart gun, a finger gun, or a toy gun — even a pink one that shoots, gasp!, soap bubbles! — isn’t any danger to anyone. Nor is playing with toy guns a sign that a kid is mentally ill or dangerous. It’s a sign that a kid is a kid.

    When schools and teachers react hysterically to such non-threats, they’re telling us one of two things: Either that they lack the ability to respond realistically to events or that they recognize that there’s not any sort of threat, but deliberately overreact in order to stigmatize even the idea of guns. The first is educational malpractice; the second is educational malpractice mixed with abuse of power. Neither inspires confidence in the educational system in which they appear.”

    • Danielle Davis (ocleverone)

      Good summary, Streiff. You also need to add non-accountability to their screed. By having a zero tolerance policy, it relieves them of having to make decisions. They can happily collect their taxpayer funded paychecks while pointing to a policy handed down from on high without having to make ANY decisions – tough or otherwise.

      While there are cases of lack of parental championing for their children, most parents I know will fight to the metaphorical death if their child is wronged. But as you aptly pointed out, parents are dealing with an educational mafia.

      Should parents choose to fight the system, they are isolated from other parents that might be experiencing the same issues due to FERPA and other confidentiality laws and run through a gauntlet of administrators or assistant superintendents who subtly say things like “well if this were a larger issue” or “if other students were…” giving the parent the impression that their little Johnny or Susie are not like other kids. The system will drag parental concerns out hoping in time, when the child moves grades or schools, the problem will go away.

      And Streiff is again right when he said they really don’t want parental involvement unless it makes their jobs easier.

  • Don T.

    The parents are absent, apathetic, too busy with their own problems and/or careers…you name it. Those kids are the schools’ problems, that is the thinking for way too many parents.

    • streiff

      Or, you have the experience a friend of mine had when he objected to some things his daughter was taught to the teacher/principal. Someone anonymously reported him to Child Protective Services.

      You just need to pick your battles very carefully when dealing with an organization that can take your kids away.

      • Sir Aaron

        That’s frightening and upsetting.
        I’ve had this discussion with some who’ve said you have to stand up no matter the consequences. My response is always “it is easy to say and harder to do when you are talking about your children being taken.”

      • northcack34

        What’s the difference between a pit bull and CPS? You can get your kid back from a pit bull.

      • sudomakeme

        Another aspect to this are the divorced parents who are under the cloud of worrying about their child being taken away to be “given” to the other parent. They aren’t going to want to be making waves at all.

  • Sir Aaron

    “where are the parents?”

    Most of the parents who care about their children’s education, their moral values, or the rampant state indoctrination have withdrawn from the public schools in favor of private schools or increasingly, are homeschooling.

    “there is the school that proclaimed that home-made cupcakes will be allowed ONLY if they are for the child’s own use. They can no longer be brought to school to be shared with classmates – if treats are intended for distribution to other students, only “store-bought” bakery goods will henceforth be permitted.”

    This is actually the rule at many schools, including private schools. This has to do with allergies. The reasoning here is simple. In a store bought package, the teacher/school can be relatively sure of what ingredients are in the food. Since the food is supposed to be distributed to other kids (not just your kid) the school needs to know if the kids with allergies can have it. I’m not sure this is how I’d personally choose to deal with allergies of students, but I would not classify this as absurd or outrageous.

    • sudomakeme

      I don’t think it’s fair or accurate to imply that you don’t care about your children’s education if you don’t pull them out of public school. Private school is obscenely expensive and home schooling is hard and time consuming. Many parents, especially those with more than one child, just can’t afford or handle either option, for whatever reason.
      I’ve also heard stories about Children’s Services showing up at people’s doorsteps who homeschool. Impossible to judge if there were other valid reasons or if the State is anxious to get more of the flock back into indoctrination mode.

      As to baked goods, that restriction on home made items is common here too. When I was a kid, we didn’t have that (I well remember helping my mother bake stuff for class parties) but I also don’t recall the allergy epidemic so prevalent today, either.

      • Sir Aaron

        It wasn’t my intention to imply that parents who leave their kids in public school don’t care (enough) about their children. We could probably start an entire thread on that issue. My point was only that a large segment of parents who would otherwise be objecting, have chosen to withdraw their kids from public school altogether. So when you ask “where are the parents” the answer is many, not all, but many are not sending their kids there.
        Totalitarian states have always forced kids into public schools of some kind. As our country moves in that direction, we should expect more laws designed to limit or end homeschooling. We should also expect that progressives will intentionally misuse levers of government, such as CPS, to accomplish their objective. To what extent it is happening now, I agree with you, is difficult to judge. I think those of us who are Christians, homeschoolers, or “conservatives” should probably have a plan just in case CPS does show up.
        There is a lot written on allergies, whether they are actually increasing or whether we just have a national psychosis. I don’t like a lot of the food policies at schools, but I just don’t think that the example you gave is one that is obscene. I just don’t think it fits well with your other examples.

        • sudomakeme

          Thanks for the clarification on the missing parents part. Yes, that would be a logical reason less people are objecting.

          I am ambivilent on the baked goods issue. I don’t find it unreasonable but I do find it a sad and unfortunate sign of the times.

          • Sir Aaron

            I’ve always said that instead of food stamps and welfare programs, the government should hand out MREs that have no taste but meet the exact nutritional needs of every person. I’m pretty sure we’d have a lot fewer people claiming to need food.

          • streiff

            some MREs are okay. I always carried hot sauce and hot mustard to take up the slack.

          • Sir Aaron

            I meant to say the government should produce MREs with no taste specifically for this purpose. I would try to make MREs for our military as pleasing as possible.

          • sudomakeme

            I’ve always said they should hand out bags of rice and pinto beans. Nobody should go hungry but if you truly need the assistance, you will be grateful for that.

      • littlehouse18

        People should try to see if they can get financial aid to go to the private school. It exists.

  • thegreatunwashed

    The “fake gun” incidents are clearly outrageous and are greatly overstepping the bounds of common sense, but most of the other examples are either explainable, understandable or actually good policy.

    For example, on the shutting down of the lemonade stands, after some cursory research it seems that most of these are attributable to city ordinances that require transient food permits. It seems that most of these ordinances are pushed by brick and mortar establishments hoping to hold down competition by “food trucks” and the children kind of get caught up in the aftermath.

    As has already been mentioned, and since my oldest son has a severe allergy to peanuts, the ban on homemade baked goods is good, in my opinion. Even if something isn’t made with peanuts, just having something cooked in the same bowl that peanuts or peanut oil was held in, or even just having peanut dust in the air, could trigger an allergic reaction and potentially cause the child to go into anaphylactic shock.
    I’m mixed on the school invitations thing. I think it may be a case of overstepping, but the justification behind it is that it could potentially be an issue with bullying (i.e. every kid in the class gets an invitation except the one kid that the distributor is trying to bully). Since public schools have a vested interest in stopping incidences of bullying, but unfortunately don’t have much experience in doing so, this may just be a case of some of the kinks getting ironed out.
    Ironically, the no touching policy is actually in place because of parents, since it is usually the parents who would bring molestation charges against the teacher/school, potentially because of a misunderstanding. This just seems like a CYA policy in order to keep everyone on the up and up, increasing the likelihood that any molestation accusations being made will actually be legitimate.