Scribblings

Revolution

Remember that old Beatles song? The one that begins

You say you want a revolution Well, you know We all want to change the world You tell me that it's evolution Well, you know We all want to change the world But when you talk about destruction Don't you know that you can count me out Don't you know it's gonna be all right all right, all right ...

You know, there needs to be some kind of revolution in the fractured reasoning of some of these middle school administrators and security guards. Three of these 5 kids caused alarm among 2 security guards who apparently have little to no common sense:

Yesterday was Kristin's first day back to school since last Wednesday. We have been totally flattened and steamrollered by a very nasty virus. TB and I still have it and both the girls are still hacking too. Anyway, the middle schoolers apparently misbehaved and were very noisy at lunch time on Friday and so the kids all had to have a "silent lunch".

Time Out: okay, if this is the best the administrators can do it's pretty pathetic but I'm supportive of it. I frankly think they should have come up with a better discipline on Friday which is when the problem actually occurred.

Back to the action: Kristin and two of her friends took to writing notes back and forth. That was allowed, talking wasn't.

Time Out: that was dumb--to me, if you're going to have the kids not talk then it should cover notes too. But that's just me...

Back to the action: the kids had some discussion about their favorite anime and what have you. They sort of compared their principal to a Nazi. That's teenage kids for you. Someone must have made a noise because the next intelligent pronouncement was "No body noises" (like mouth farts, etc). Kristin's friend wrote "kaboom" in response to that...and that's where the security guard comes in.

She sees the word and freaks. Does she ask for the notebook then? No, she scurries off to find another guard. Meanwhile, the kid puts the notebook away. The two guards come back and demand to see the book. The kids are nervous as the guards read the messages. They're worried that they're going to be in trouble because of the Nazi reference. Sure enough, one security guard marches up to an administrator with the notebook...

But guess what? It's not about the Nazi reference at all. The security guard thinks "kaboom" means the kids are going to blow up the school.

As Dr. Phil would say, Are you kidding me?

So the three had to write out explanations about what they were doing and that they hadn't intended to write terrorist messages and blah blah blah.

I said to Kristin that it was wrong to write about the principal and Nazis although it's understandable that the kids were irritated by the punishment. It would have been better to write "this isn't fair" and Kristin agreed. Inwardly, I was thinking: this is so stupid, these kids didn't intend to harm anyone. We need better security guards, ones with common sense. Duh.

So, yeah, I'm calling for a revolution in the way administrators handle junior high school students. There's got to be a more effective way of disciplining them and they certainly shouldn't be putting thoughts into the kids' heads that weren't there to begin with (blowing up the school).

Posted by Cassie at January 31, 2006 09:09 AM | TrackBack