This article was originally published by EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
With each passing year, the difference between America's prisons and America's public schools becomes smaller and smaller. As you read the rest of this article, you will be absolutely amazed at some of the crazy things that school children in America are being arrested for. When I was growing up, I don't remember a single police officer ever coming to my school. Discipline was always handled by the teachers and by the principals. But today, there are schools all over the country that have police officers permanently stationed in the halls. Many other schools will call out police officers at the drop of a hat. In the classrooms of America today, if you burp in class, if you spray yourself with perfume or if you doodle on your desk, there is a chance that you will be arrested by the police and hauled out of your school in handcuffs. Unfortunately, we live in a country where paranoia has become standard operating procedure. The American people have become convinced that the only way that we can all be "safe" is for this country to be run like a militarized totalitarian police state. So our public schools are run like prisons and our public school students are treated like prisoners. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world by far, and our schools are preparing the next generation to either "do time" in the prison system or to live as good little slaves in the Big Brother prison grid that is being constructed all around us. But what our schools are not doing is giving these children the critical thinking skills that they need to live as free citizens in a nation that used to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave".
Of course very few people would deny that the character of American schoolchildren has changed dramatically over the decades. Back in the 1950s, some of the biggest school discipline problems were gum chewing and hair pulling. Today, kids bring knives, guns and drugs with them to school. Gang activity is rampant in many of our schools and in some schools kids are even having sex in the school bathrooms.
So there is definitely a discipline problem in our schools.
But what is going on in many areas of the country is absolutely ridiculous. For example, in 2010 alone police down in Texas issued an astounding 300,000 tickets to school children.
Yes, if a kid pulls a knife on someone the police should get involved, but teachers and administrators should be able to use some common sense and handle the vast majority of discipline problems that happen themselves.
What you are about to read is absolutely going to amaze you. The following are 19 really crazy things that school children are being arrested for in America....
#1 At one public school down in Texas, a 12-year-old girl named Sarah Bustamantes was recently arrested for spraying herself with perfume.
#2 A 13-year-old student at a school in Albuquerque, New Mexico was recently arrested by police for burping in class.
#3 Another student down in Albuquerque was forced to strip down to his underwear while five adults watched because he had $200 in his pocket. The student was never formally charged with doing anything wrong.
#4 A security guard at one school in California broke the arm of a 16-year-old girl because she left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning up some cake that she had spilled.
#5 One teenage couple down in Houston poured milk on each other during a squabble while they were breaking up. Instead of being sent to see the principal, they were arrested and sent to court.
#6 In early 2010, a 12-year-old girl at a school in Forest Hills, New York was arrested by police and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk. "I love my friends Abby and Faith" was what she reportedly scribbled on her desk.
#7 A 6-year-old girl down in Florida was handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.
#8 One student down in Texas was reportedly arrested by police for throwing paper airplanes in class.
#9 A 17-year-old honor student in North Carolina named Ashley Smithwick accidentally took her father's lunch with her to school. It contained a small paring knife which he would use to slice up apples. So what happened to this standout student when the school discovered this? The school suspended her for the rest of the year and the police charged her with a misdemeanor.
#10 In Allentown, Pennsylvania a 14-year-old girl was tasered in the groin area by a school security officer even though she had put up her hands in the air to surrender.
#11 Down in Florida, an 11-year-old student was arrested, thrown in jail and charged with a third-degree felony for bringing a plastic butter knife to school.
#12 Back in 2009, an 8-year-old boy in Massachusetts was sent home from school and was forced to undergo a psychological evaluation because he drew a picture of Jesus on the cross.
#13 A police officer in San Mateo, California blasted a 7-year-old special education student in the face with pepper spray because he would not quit climbing on the furniture.
#14 In America today, even 5-year-old children are treated brutally by police. The following is from a recent article that described what happened to one very young student in Stockton, California a while back....
Earlier this year, a Stockton student was handcuffed with zip ties on his hands and feet, forced to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged with battery on a police officer. That student was 5 years old.
#15 At one school in Connecticut, a 17-year-old boy was thrown to the floor and tasered five times because he was yelling at a cafeteria worker.
#16 A teenager in suburban Dallas was forced to take on a part-time job after being ticketed for using foul language in one high school classroom. The original ticket was for $340, but additional fees have raised the total bill to $637.
#17 A few months ago, police were called out when a little girl kissed a little boy during a physical education class at an elementary school down in Florida.
#18 A 6-year-old boy was recently charged with sexual battery for some "inappropriate touching" during a game of tag at one elementary school in the San Francisco area.
#19 In Massachusetts, police were recently sent out to collect an overdue library book from a 5-year-old girl.
Unfortunately, what is going on in our schools is a reflection of the broader society as a whole. Our schools are being turned into prisons because our entire society is being turned into a giant prison.
Our nation is rapidly heading down the toilet, and the children of this nation do not have a bright future to look forward to.
If the police really want to find some criminals, they should start investigating some of the sickos that are in charge of some of these classrooms.
It seems like almost every day now there is a news story about some public school teacher that is involved in some kind of really perverted stuff.
For example, just check out what police down in Los Angeles recently found that one teacher was hiding....
A former Los Angeles elementary school teacher has been arrested for felony molestation of nearly two dozen students, accused of gagging children and putting live cockroaches on some of their faces. Deputies say the crimes were committed on campus.
Sickos who do that kind of stuff to kids should be punished very severely.
America's schools are changing, and not for the better.
Personally, I went to public schools all my life, but I would not recommend that anyone send their kids to public schools today. There is just way too much crazy stuff that goes on.
And our kids are learning less than ever in these public schools. As I have written about previously, many of them are coming out of the system as dumb as a rock. Instead of teaching our kids how to think critically and examine all sides of an issue, these schools are indoctrinating our kids and pushing particular social and political agendas on them.
There are a few public schools out there that are still good, but the vast majority of them are horrible. They are not producing the leaders of tomorrow and they are not preparing the next generation with the tools that they need to survive in a complex world.
So is there much hope that our schools can be turned around? Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....
written by B Chandler , February 02, 2012
We're a prison colony here in Australia but even WE wouldn't put up with that BS. The time for you guys to stop complaining and start fighting has come and gone.
written by PioneerWife , February 02, 2012
Like many other things in America these days, I think public schools have gotten worse because parents and taxpayers, the true owners of the school, are completely lackadasical in holding those at the school accountable. Accountability starts with knowing who your teachers (and their administrators) are and being aware and understanding what they are or are not doing. Just like a working relationship, how well your child does in school is very dependent on how they get along with and harmonize with their teacher. The relationship is unique and not all kids will do well with one particular teacher. Now that we have email, its easy to keep in contact with your children's teachers and have relationships with them other than what you get through your child. You can use this relationship to ally yourself with your children's teachers, to help your child understand differences of opinion, what they may need to do different, and to communicate what the teacher needs to know about your child that may be influencing their educational relationship. You can also use these emails as evidence to your local school board if the teacher is slacking off or as a compliment to support their performance.
We have been lucky with my 6yr old son. He goes to a small, rural, underfunded school, but so far the teachers have been great. Our only problem is that the bus driver will not let him read on the bus, so we have had to enact a way that he sneaks books on the bus and enjoys a good read on the long bus ride. His teacher is my ally in this. (and to add to the above article, since when did reading on the bus become a problem?!?)
With our exchange student we had mixed results. She attended the high school side of the same school. She complained constantly about her math teacher (the one class there shouldn't have been a language barrier). She told me the math teacher never taught. The teacher initially flunked her homework because Europeans write their numbers slightly differently than Americans. (The first bad sign). I met every one of her teachers during her parent-teacher conferences. I did a little upfront work so that I could test the math teacher and what my daughter was telling me. During the conference I asked the teacher to help me with a particular quadratic equation, (one that couldn't be factored, one that would require the use of the Quadratic formula), something I would have expected a person who had taught high school level algebra for the past 30 years to do easily. When she realized she couldn't factor the equation she hesitated and looked lost. She had to look in her book. She didn't know the formula off the top of her head. At that moment I knew my daughter wasn't lying to me, this math teacher HADN'T taught math in a long time, but was being paid well to do so. At that point I knew any grade she gave my daughter was meaningless. But without testing her ability to teach, I never would have known that. I counselled my daughter to work with her math teacher as best as she could and to come to me for help. Had it become a bigger issue than an annoyance she could have switched teachers and we could have pursued action with the school board but as it was that teacher was retiring at the end of that year.
Point is, if we as parents and taxpayers, don't use the powers that we have, or put in the effort that we should, to know those working at the school than we're getting just what we deserve.
written by Lorraine Jarvi , February 02, 2012
I was a substitute teacher until recently. I was fired by my local ESD because I protested to another teacher that I couldn't be ready to teach a third grade class in the 10 minutes I had been given to prepare. I was expected to read 4 pages of a teacher's text and prepare a one hour language arts lesson in that amount of time, as well as locate materials and read through the plans for the day. The principal accused me of "verbally attacking another teacher" for daring to express an opinion as a lowly substitute. Her militaristic perspective is typical of the low mentality and lack of professionalism that is rampant today.
written by nutcase , February 02, 2012
I gave up on the system long ago, ok only 2 years ago. We have 4 kids, 1 in college the rest working on stuff as we speak. It is just like day care, we could't afford it and the kids always came back poor-minded, argumentative. It was cheaper and better for the kids to have mother home with them. Government school is the same. We chose to opt-out.
written by nutcase , February 02, 2012
The following link is a perfect description of government schools not wanting to take care of business.
http://www.krem.com/news/northwest-news/138578764.html
written by PioneerWife , February 03, 2012
Reading anything by John Taylor Gatto is a real eye-opener about american public schools.
written by goinggrey , February 03, 2012
PioneerWife (and others): If you have in fact read Gatto, as I have, what's preventing you from home-educating your children?
written by PioneerWife , February 03, 2012
Goinggrey-
I do homeschool my children; part time. That was exactly my point. Parents must take an active and engaged role in their children's education, regardless of where they are educated.
written by theron , February 04, 2012
That Gatto is a nice fellow from Minnesota. His research is quite astonishing; a conspiracy was set up to condition people according to the "administrators'" needs.
I went to public school in NYC, where Gatto taught. I did have some good teachers. But you basically have a bunch of people getting paychecks for administering a Pavlovian conditioning system that wasted 12 years of my time. That was back in the 1970s. It's worse now.
In the past year I have come to accept that you can indeed have good schools, and a good society with public schools. I had become prejudiced against public schooling because of my experiences, and because I can see that even many university graduates do not have good skills.
But as for what the current system is, I am frankly contemptuous of it. It isn't just a bunch of people with shortcomings, it's a system someone created, and it is destructive.
