A 6-year-old shot his teacher in a Virginia classroom. The teacher is still in the hospital, recovering from gunshot wounds. Thanks to her heroic leadership, the rest of her students are safe, or at least as safe as you can be after witnessing a shooting in your own class. The steady drip, drip, drip of information about this incident has turned it from an aberration into a scandal.
Here is what we know about the shooter: He had written a note saying he wanted to see a teacher on fire and watch her die. He had thrown furniture in the classroom, forcing other students to hide under their desks. He had barricaded the door to the classroom, forcing the teacher and students to remain inside. The room had to be forced open by teachers on the outside once the teacher had pounded on the door loud enough to bring help. He was on a special care plan that required his parents to accompany him to each of his classes (that plan had stopped the week of his shooting). All of this had been reported to the administration by several teachers and they were told to ignore the behavior. His current teacher had asked for help with him on numerous occasions all year long. None of her requests were acted on.
This is a troubled student in a troubled school. I have done a little research on this school and it has a 25% student load that misses at least one out of every 10 days of school. This is considered a critical absentee rate. But all of this also ignores that there are 75% of the students who are trying to succeed at school. Unfortunately, these students are having to walk through a minefield to get an education.
There has been much talk about the need for alternative schools to house disruptive students, especially at the elementary level. I have fought in the trenches in the educational wars, and I tell you we need these schools. We need them because wrongdoers have victimized the rest of their classmates.
If I sound intolerant, it is because I am. I am tired of tolerating disruptive, aggressive and dangerous behavior on the part of a few students. I am tired of seeing good teachers, who could open doors of opportunity for their students, waste instructional time dealing with little tyrants. I am tired of seeing well-behaved students in educational limbo while the teacher deals with the worst child in the class. And I am definitely tired of having veteran teachers who have a decade of effective instruction left in them take early retirement because they are tired of being a policeman and social worker when what they wanted to do was teach. This is educational theft, it is a waste of teacher talent and taxpayer money, and, yes, it is someone’s fault.
I am not talking about students who are slow learners or disabled. I am talking about students who are rude, mean, angry and physically aggressive.
While a few of these students are pathologically anti-social, the vast majority of them have learned their bad behavior from others. They learned it from a society that lets athletes and entertainers break any rule in exchange for their talent. They learned it from video games and movies that choose to sell violence because they know they will have ready buyers, hooked on the cheap drug called adrenaline. They learned it from lawyers who are more worried about the rights of the accused than the pain of the victim. They learned it from parents who are too self-absorbed to spend the time, effort and energy it takes to raise a child. They learned the behavior from someone, and the rest of us are paying for it.
These students may need medication, they may need sympathy, understanding and special services, and they should be able to get all of these things. What is more, I stand ready to pay the taxes needed to support those services for troublesome students. But I will not defend their right to interfere with the education of students who play by the rules.
Obedient, polite, cooperative students have rights too. Why should their education be held hostage to the tantrums of others? What kind of message are we sending when we let the least cooperative child control the learning environment?
I would agree that every child has the right to an education, but every right has some concurrent responsibilities. If the responsibilities go unfulfilled, the corresponding right is abrogated. That is how a society regulates itself.
We need alternative schools for our disruptive students. We have sacrificed the lives and educational environment of our responsible students long enough. Now we are sacrificing lives. If you can’t stand the thought of not having a victim to fight for, look in any classroom at the students who are minding their business, trying to learn, and behaving like decent citizens. There are your victims.
Ask your school board what they are doing to protect the rights of students to learn in a calm, peaceful and uplifting environment. Keep the faith.
Louise Butler is a retired educator and published author who lives in Edinburg. She writes for our Board of Contributors.
