Michelle Malkin has a horrifying story of a special education girl was beaten and sexually abused by a pack of students while others watched and videotaped it. The truly horrible part of the story is how the administrators at the school behaved.
One monstrosity was piled upon another. When the girl's father, who had been summoned to the school by the teacher, insisted on calling police, an assistant principal twice urged him not to call 911, according to Upshaw-Haider. Assistant Principal Rick Watson implored the girl's father to call the non-emergency police line instead of 911, a violation of Ohio state law, because "a news channel might tape his daughter and cause her further mental trauma," according to his statement to school investigators.
Meanwhile, according to witnesses, the school's principal, Regina Crenshaw, shuttered herself in a meeting about bell schedules and curriculum for a half-hour while underlings scrambled to perform damage control.
Cover your ears, cower in a classroom, and pray that the media stay out of it. It's all about the children, right?
Witness statements revealed that none of the administrators bothered to call a nurse to assist the girl. Only after the girl's father called police himself did law enforcement come to the scene. By the time the cops arrived, all of the administrators had gone home for the day.
Malkin believes that such behavior is not an anomaly. I am more optimistic than she is. In my limited experience of teaching at a regular public middle school and a public charter high school, I have full confidence that any of those administrators would have reacted in a totally different way. I suspect most administrators would know what to do in this situation. And any who didn't should indeed be fired.
What Malkin also points out is that schools don't suddenly become these dens of evil. When small infractions are ignored and tolerated, students will press the limits. Gradually, they can descend into a Lord of the Flies situation such as prevailed at this school. That is the situation that needs to be addressed. posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 6:42 AM
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Michelle Malkin has a horrifying story of a special education girl was beaten and sexually abused by a pack of students while others watched and videotaped it. The truly horrible part of the story is how the administrators at the school behaved.
One monstrosity was piled upon another. When the girl's father, who had been summoned to the school by the teacher, insisted on calling police, an assistant principal twice urged him not to call 911, according to Upshaw-Haider. Assistant Principal Rick Watson implored the girl's father to call the non-emergency police line instead of 911, a violation of Ohio state law, because "a news channel might tape his daughter and cause her further mental trauma," according to his statement to school investigators.
Meanwhile, according to witnesses, the school's principal, Regina Crenshaw, shuttered herself in a meeting about bell schedules and curriculum for a half-hour while underlings scrambled to perform damage control.
Cover your ears, cower in a classroom, and pray that the media stay out of it. It's all about the children, right?
Witness statements revealed that none of the administrators bothered to call a nurse to assist the girl. Only after the girl's father called police himself did law enforcement come to the scene. By the time the cops arrived, all of the administrators had gone home for the day.
Malkin believes that such behavior is not an anomaly. I am more optimistic than she is. In my limited experience of teaching at a regular public middle school and a public charter high school, I have full confidence that any of those administrators would have reacted in a totally different way. I suspect most administrators would know what to do in this situation. And any who didn't should indeed be fired.
What Malkin also points out is that schools don't suddenly become these dens of evil. When small infractions are ignored and tolerated, students will press the limits. Gradually, they can descend into a Lord of the Flies situation such as prevailed at this school. That is the situation that needs to be addressed. posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 6:42 AM
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