Pat,
If you publish this, I'd ask that you remove my name and email from
it. I'd rather this be anonymous.
Regular Reader
> Forgive my ignorance, but if this whole exercise on the part of public
> schools is simply aimed at reducing their liablility exposure, how do
> the private schools others mentioned get around that issue? As you
> point out, we do inhabit a litigious society so I can't imagine
> private schools don't care about lawsuits. And I'm sure kids attending
> private school can be just as cruel. What gives? Do private schools
> reduce their liability by monitoring whereas public schools are not
> allowed to monitor email? Seems to me that if they're blocking sites,
> they're already monitoring, no? I don't get it. Why take away a
> valuable tool from all the kids for the possible stupidity of a few?
> It would be like cutting school sports entirely because some students
> may get hurt playing. Or does that happen too?
> -Dean
You're right. Our society has inflicted so much legal influence on
our schools that it is the courts that are defining the rules as to
how our children are educated, not the educators. And they are also
defining limits by which they protect our children.
When I was in high school, I was a school bus driver (at that time,
the students drove the buses in the state I lived in and there were a
number of other states that then practiced this, too). While I was
the driver of a school bus, I was attacked by three students on my
bus. There were enormous bruises all over my body and my father went
ballistic when he saw them.
My father went down to the school and told the principal and the vice
principals that he'd swear out a warrant for the arrest of those
students if they laid another hand on me. All they did was warn the
students that my father would have them arrested if they touched me
again. They told both of us that they wouldn't take any action
against those boys because they were afraid of the Civil Liberties
Union (they actually told us that the ACLU would intervene if they
even took those boys off the bus route).
Fortunately, my father's warning scared those students enough that
they never caused me another problem. And it so frightened them that
they all apologized to me, like their apology made things all right
for them). But, I didn't drive that route any more because the school
was afraid for my safety (but I continued to ride that bus daily
because it was the only one going to where I needed to go). I was
allowed to drive all other routes, however, and I did so regurlarly.
And those boys never even served detention.
Maybe our courts need to think about this a little bit before they
intervene in school actions.
Anony Mouse (friend@telecom-digest.org)