Archive for the ‘safety’ Category

Given that there are far better and more effective ways to discipline students, why would schools risk lawsuits and criminal charges by striking children?

I still don’t understand how we teach kids not to hit people by hitting them.

Paddlings are often recalled on this blog with wistfulness as if they were a vanishing Southern staple — in the tradition of pickup trucks and pickled okra. It’s time to get rid of paddling in schools. (I would also like to get rid of pickled okra but my husband loves it.)

Schools should not physically discipline children. Suspend them. Call the parents. Send them home. But don’t hit them. It’s wrong. It invites complaints and lawsuits. And it teaches kids to use force to make their points.

Here’s yet another story on yet another spanking incident, this time in a private school where parents apparently have to approve the physical disciplining of their kids:

A family is complaining that their 11-year-old son was paddled excessively as punishment …

Continue reading Can’t we get paddling out of all schools once and for all? »

Today is the day for interesting research findings. Here is a summary of a study that looked at whether children fared better in a country with a wider safety net than the United States.

Researchers compared child outcomes in the U.S. and Great Britain, which offers families and children a broader range of social services.

Their conclusion: It didn’t seem to make any difference. The risk factors for behavioral problems did not appear to be  mitigated by stronger social services, affirming the researchers’ earlier findings of the critical role of parents to healthy child development.

I find this interesting because there is a lot of effort in this country to provide more public supports to children from fractured or troubled households. But can those supports compensate for what Gov. Roy Barnes used to describe as “sorry parents”?

I have found that the kids who thrive despite tough home lives often have one of two things in their favor: Inner resilience or a caring …

Continue reading Study: A wider social services safety net does not guarantee fewer children slip »

I received this note from a Georgia teacher and am sharing it with the author’s permission as it provides an example of why a school might resort to bringing in police to respond to even elementary schoolchildren:

This note outlines a frightening experience the teacher’s own child had this week because of an out-of-control classmate who was clearly a danger to himself and others:

As a public school teacher since 1990, I have seen my share of unruly students. I do not doubt that incidences sometimes require police intervention and even warrant the use of handcuffs. Below is an account of an incident that occurred yesterday while my fifth grade daughter was taking her math CRCT. This is her written statement:

“Today at CRCT this boy got stuck on a question and started kicking the table. The teacher told him to stop.

He ran to the curtains and wrapped himself up in it and started humming. He found this sliding door and went in and found a wooden board and started beating the wall …

Continue reading Handcuffing children: A teacher shares his child’s scary experience with a classmate »

The AJC’s Christian Boone spoke today with the parents of the handcuffed Milledgeville kindergartner Salecia Johnson.

As we all expected, this story is shifting to a national stage.

What remains unclear is whether this little girl has had a history of outbursts. The Milledgeville police chief said earlier this week that the principal said Salecia had run away from the school before so we can assume her past behavior played a role in the school’s decision to bring in police. A representative of the family denied that the child had run away from the school.

It remains unclear what strategies the school had in place to deal with Salecia, and whether those strategies were tried before police were called.

Here is an excerpt of the AJC interview:

Salecia was there too, and on her best behavior as she demonstrated for reporters how her hands were cuffed from the back. “It hurted,” she said.

The action was taken after police were called by Creekside Elementary School’s principal, …

Continue reading Handcuffed kindergartner story is not going away. Still a lot we don’t know. »

UPDATE Tuesday at 1:22 p.m.: Since writing about this yesterday when there was just the one news story, this incident has drawn widespread attention around the country.

The AJC now has a more detailed story online.

That story states:

Police said a small shelf thrown by the child struck the principal in the leg during the fracas. The child also jumped on a paper shredder and tried to break a glass frame, the police report states. The school called police. When an officer tried to calm the child in the principal’s office, she resisted, police say. She “was restrained by placing her hands behind her back and handcuffed,” a police report states.

A juvenile complaint was filed, accusing the girl of simple battery and damage to property. The police department’s policy is to handcuff people when they are taken to the police station, regardless of their age, interim Police Chief Dray Swicord said. “The reason we handcuff detainees is for the safety of themselves as well as …

Continue reading Handcuffing an out-of-control Georgia kindergartner. Was there a better response? »

As a parent, I once checked out a day care center recommended by a friend. (He had no children in the center, but lived across from it, liked the owner and often saw the kids playing happily in the front yard.)

But the place was so awful that I thought I might have stumbled into a “Candid Camera” spoof. There was a nail on the floor in the playroom. I handed it to the owner who tucked it in her pocket without comment or explanation. During our brief conversation, the “Oprah Show” was blaring on the TV, and her dog kept jumping up and taking food out of the toddlers’ hands.

I did not send my child to that center and still wonder about the parents who did.

The AJC has been doing a terrific job investigating laxity in regulating day care centers and pre-k programs.

In the Sunday installment of the ongoing series, investigative reporter Tim Eberly reports that the state paid at least $355 million in subsidies over the past four years to day cares that have failed to meet …

Continue reading State still sending millions to day cares and pre-ks that don’t meet child care quality regulations »

I wanted to share an op-ed from Jacob Vigdor, a professor in Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and Department of Economics, on the federal discipline data that was released last week. This piece will run on the Monday education op-ed page.

By Jacob Vigdor

A recently released report has spawned new outrage over an old problem: Black and Hispanic students are more likely to be suspended from school than white students. The knee-jerk reaction to this finding is to think it unjust, reflective of lingering racism among school principals and disciplinarians, and no doubt a contributor to the achievement gap.

If you believe that, ask yourself if you also believe the following things:

1. There are many students — of all races — who walk the straight and narrow path without being prodded. There are also some, of all races, who cause trouble, but the threat of punishment keeps them in line at least to some extent.

2. The presence of disruptive students in a classroom …

Continue reading Counterintuitive logic about discipline and achievement gap »

A controversy is erupting over meats being served in school lunches, making parents wonder if their kids should opt for veggie option. (AP Images.)

I have been getting emails this week about pink slime, which is the name critics have given the ammonia–treated meat that they complain is being served in school lunches and many other places. Pink slime has its origins in an effort by the meat industry to battle deadly E. coli.

Several recent news stories have created a heightened awareness of  “pink slime,” which first came to the national attention through a New York Times investigation in 2009.  An “ABC World News” segment reported that 70 percent of ground beef sold in supermarkets has the ammonia-treated sludge. (For another point of view on pink slime and food safety issues, take a look at this editorial in Drover’s CattleNetwork.)

In December, 2009, The New York Times reported:

The company, Beef Products Inc., had been looking to expand into the hamburger business with …

Continue reading School lunch controversy: “Pink slime” or “lean, nutritious, safe beef” »

A high school honor student in Pennsylvania created a parody MySpace profile for his principal that included such comments as “Birthday: too drunk to remember.”

Suspended by the school and banned from extracurricular activities, 17-year-old Justin Layshock and his parents sued on the grounds that his First Amendment rights were violated and won, including $10,000 in compensatory damages.

In its 2011 ruling upholding the student’s victory, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decreed, “It would be an unseemly and dangerous precedent to allow the state, in the guise of school authorities, to reach into a child’s home and control his/her actions there to the same extent that it can control that child when he/she participates in school-sponsored activities.” The court felt that the parody – circulated to a limited number of the student’s classmates — did not create a substantial disruption of the school.

A student in West Virginia did not fare as well in her legal …

Continue reading Where do schools legally draw the line on online pranks, bullying and insults? »

Research is showing that football poses not only immediate risks of injury to players, but lifelong brain injuries. Should high schools be in the football business? (Jason Getz/AJC photo)

Interesting AJC story today about heat-related deaths among football players, of which Georgia has the highest reported incidences, according to a new UGA study.

The study found that overall heat-related deaths have tripled in the last 15 years and that most occurred in August and in  the eastern half of the U.S.

I had a recent discussion with a longtime national sportswriter about the disturbing research on football injuries, including studies that found NFL players who suffered concussions experiencing more problems with speech, memory, headaches and concentration. Another study by UNC’s Center for the Study of Retired Athletes found that pro players who had multiple concussions in their careers are more likely to suffer  depression.

This veteran sportswriter told me that he thought it …

Continue reading Is football too dangerous for schools to continue to maintain teams? »