The hidden issue : the American public school system

[Morvack]

One of the biggest issues today in America is not well known. It has indirectly killed 1,000s of young people. It goes on in almost every town in the us. The states of public schools is appalling.

Our public school system is broken so horribly, I could sit here for hours explaining how, but I will try to keep is short and sweet.

Bullying is not only rampant in schools, it's actually against the majority of schools rules to fight back. If another child is attacking your child in school, your kid can actually get in trouble fot defending themselves against the attack. It has happened to me and other people I know across the country.

There has been tuns of suicides due to bullying. An example is the Eric Mohatt case. The unfortunate case of a young man who killed himself, listing bullying as his reason in his suicide note. When the school was contacted for their word on it, they just said "We don't have a bullying problem.". Sense then, three more kids killed themselves, also listing bullying.

Schools also get away with a tun of injustices. A school actually strip searched a student for having advil. Freaking, over the counter, advil. Schools have also tampered with evidence. One of the many stories I have read, is a principal wanting to delete cellphone footage of one of their staff harassing a student, before the police could see it. Schools have also threatened to expell students because they reported being rapped by another student. It really is outrageous.

I hope someone reads this and googles "schools" "news" (with the quotation marks), and comes to the realization : where they send their precious child every day can treat them like a prisoner while there, and something needs to be done about it.

 

[missbishi]

Bullying is rife in schools in the UK too, particularly using social media. The difference is, here, they seem to do more about it. Sometimes, though, it takes a tragedy to make teachers sit up and listen.

 

[003]

It happens frequently in all walks of life and in almost all country. It must be stopped, but I couldn't suggest other else than stringent implementation of the laws. But it would be really hard, and I don't think that teachers would want to get involved. Few be willing. Majority would exercise all possibilities to get away from it and to not get concerned.

 

[whitelae]

This is such a tough issue. There are many solutions, but each one also has its downside too. I don't know whether bullying has increased, or if the public is just more aware of it now due to the internet, but I do think it's more intense. There's no escape when kids are bullied on all the social media platforms, instead of just at school. I used to roll my eyes at all the anti bullying campaigns, but now I think it makes sense. A teacher or parent saying "stop bullying that kid" isn't as effective as kids telling each other to stop.

When the public demands the schools to do something about bullying (or other issues), what can they do? If they go too far, people are fired, and the school is sued. If they don't do enough, people are fired, and the school is sued. Morvack mentioned a student strip searched for Advil. If the school suspected the Advil was a different drug, then what should they have done about it? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everything the school system is doing is right, I'm just saying no matter what action they took, there'd be a problem.

 

[Falcon29]

School staff can only do so much. It's the social lifestyle amongst teens which involved rampant degrading of others. Unfortunately back when I was highschool there were multiple suicides in our district. One of them from my school. A young man whenever he tried conversating with others people made it clear they wanted nothing to do with him.

So me and my friend tried filling that gap in but we could only do so much. The students overall just have bad behavior. You need to have strong character to deal with him .

And me being from Gaza, that was natural for me.

I knew how to deal with every jock to point where people began respecting me for who I am . No one wanted drama with me.

 

[Falcon29]

This is such a tough issue. There are many solutions, but each one also has its downside too. I don't know whether bullying has increased, or if the public is just more aware of it now due to the internet, but I do think it's more intense. There's no escape when kids are bullied on all the social media platforms, instead of just at school. I used to roll my eyes at all the anti bullying campaigns, but now I think it makes sense. A teacher or parent saying "stop bullying that kid" isn't as effective as kids telling each other to stop.

When the public demands the schools to do something about bullying (or other issues), what can they do? If they go too far, people are fired, and the school is sued. If they don't do enough, people are fired, and the school is sued. Morvack mentioned a student strip searched for Advil. If the school suspected the Advil was a different drug, then what should they have done about it? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everything the school system is doing is right, I'm just saying no matter what action they took, there'd be a problem.

It's related to American society. There are too many arrogant teenagers who try imitating tv show stars and hip hop stars. For some students it makes them more kind. For a good portion of others it makes them look down upon others.

In Arab world for example this problem doesn't exist. Most students are like brothers irregardless of looks /personality.

A solution that might work is spanking but not sure if it can be approved anywhere other than south.

 

[Falcon29]

Awkward that after I read this and posted I find out news of old friend committed suicide.... RIP

 

[Redheart]

What we forget is that teachers can and actually [do] bully kids in school. When faced with a two-pronged attack whom do you turn to for help? Killing bullying [IMO] is the parents task. They need to find out how their kid is doing in school. When the child tells them s/he is being bullied in school either by the teachers or other kids they'll take action to stop that from happening again by:

a) Taking up the matter with the school administration.
b) Moving their kid to another school.
c] Teaching the kid self-defense so they can ward off the bullies.

 

[tournique]

School system have problems everywhere around the world. And bullying got more and more visible due to the impact of social media and smartphones. It's sad that there is no solution for this, not one that can be applied to all students.

 

[xTinx]

So your claim is based on personal experience. Although it is the truth, as far as your context is concerned, but perhaps that's not always the case for every US public school out there. I do know that compared to private schools, which have strict code of ethics, some American public schools have a nihilist vibe. Your school must belong to this category. I think a long love letter to the US Department of Education would be in order.

 

[RobertNick]

Bullying is always a problem, wherever you might look, regardless of the country. It's something that will take a long time and dedication to fix it, and it can be only done through education and teaching tolerance.

 

[kd3pc]

Here in the US, just a few days ago, some 4th grade students were "suspended"- (US Speak, for sent home for a couple of days) for attempting to kill their teacher with antibiotic hand sanitizer. The teacher was allergic to it.

Yet a younger kid was "expelled" - ( US speak for find a new school or your folks will have to home-school you) for simply pointing his finger at another kid.

There needs to be some form of punishment or removal of these kids from the school, who seem to always thwart the learning process of the others, to a more structured, parent inclusive environment, where they can be disciplined and let the others learn/teach. If they can not be disciplined, then it is time for Mom and Dad to learn the consequences of their decision to let the rest of the world do their parenting and THEY can either do it, or take their precious angels home for home schooling.

It is far past time for education to be a privilege, that must be respected and have consequences for not doing so, not the baby sitter that it is now.

 

[missbishi]

I do agree that this problem may well be down to lazy parenting. When I go to the supermarket, I often see kids running around, screaming and knocking into people whilst the parents just ignore it! I would have had a harsh telling-off had I behaved like that as a child. Kids are allowed to get away with so much, it's unbelievable. There appears to be a trend towards diagnosing disorders such as ADHD and oppositional-defiance disorder. Sorry if I sound harsh, and I am sure some of the cases really are genuine, but I do believe that these, in general, are just labels for "badly behaved".

 

[galmal]

I agree that the public school system in the US is not just broken, but completely and thoroughly destroyed. Our administrators and politicians keep trying to put a "bandaid" on it, but it needs to be totally overhauled. As [HASHTAG]#morvack[/HASHTAG] said, the problems are too numerous to go into here, but I think the biggest issue is that we are so concerned with "no child left behind" that we have adopted a "no child put forward" agenda. We spend all of our time and limited budgets trying to help the lowest 10%, we forget all about the other 90%. In a perfect world, we would be able to reach and educate all children, but we don't live in a perfect world. And, as cold as it sounds, we need to let go of the 10% in order to save the 90%. In most cases, no matter what we do or how much we spend, that 10% can't be reached and they will never get a good education. But we continue to spend our resources on them, and now the 90% aren't getting a quality education either. It's a lose-lose scenario.

 

[Mackmax]

Our school system is a joke, and the teachers and administrators are the punchline. B
Bullying is a huge problem. Many schools say that they don't tolerate bullying in order to satisfy the parents, when in reality, they completely turn the other way towards bullying victims. Teachers can be the biggest bullies of all. Some of the most harsh, rude people I've ever met were my own teachers, calling students stupid, ugly, and even telling them they're bound to fail. Even when the students have enough guts to speak to the principal about things like this, the principal dismisses the issue simply because the teacher is an adult and apparently adults can't be bullies or be mean.
Students are treated like prisoners, really. Most teachers and principals don't care about their students, and only want them to do well because it gives the school more money, including money that goes into their paycheck.
So many students have been suspended and expelled for the dumbest things. A little black girl got expelled for wearing her natural hair, a boy got suspended for having long hair, and a 5 year old got suspended for nibbling his PopTart into he shape of a gun. Really?