Punishment for “out of school activity” within schools has existed for so long. If you beat up another kid on a Saturday, the school can absolutely respond in kind. It affects all the students (gossip goes a long way) and if the school takes no stance or doesn’t respond then parents wonder what happened in the school that led to out of school violence and if the school is doing enough to protect their children. A kid can absolutely be suspended or otherwise punished for harming another student outside of the classroom or outside of “school hours.”
I don’t think that’s the right way to handle that.
My original point wasn’t what should be done, but rather the weird saddling of schools with this responsibility.
First, communities should have social support to enable parents and kids to turn themselves around if this happens.
Then, fines should be given to parents of kids doing this (based on income, so rich parents can’t just pay their way out). These kids of behaviors are almost always because of the parents.
Finally, repeat offenders or those committing worse crimes should be charged and sentenced.
By all means put these social workers in the schools to deal with this behavior. Hell, we already have cops in them. But teachers (especially) and school administration should specialize in learning—not rehabilitation.
And if something like assault (beating up a kid) happens, it’s a crime. We have people to handle that.
Again, no one is saying schools should do nothing. My original point was schools alone cannot fix this, and the blame being pointed (almost entirely) at them in this article is weird.
The stance the school can take is that everything reported to the school will be given to the specialists for these kinds of problems.
Okay, if you notify the school about the harassment, then obviously separate them.
But my point is schools cannot give punishment for things happening outside of school. They’re not going to be able to stop that part.
The consequences for stuff outside of school need to come from the appropriate people.
Punishment for “out of school activity” within schools has existed for so long. If you beat up another kid on a Saturday, the school can absolutely respond in kind. It affects all the students (gossip goes a long way) and if the school takes no stance or doesn’t respond then parents wonder what happened in the school that led to out of school violence and if the school is doing enough to protect their children. A kid can absolutely be suspended or otherwise punished for harming another student outside of the classroom or outside of “school hours.”
I don’t think that’s the right way to handle that.
My original point wasn’t what should be done, but rather the weird saddling of schools with this responsibility.
First, communities should have social support to enable parents and kids to turn themselves around if this happens.
Then, fines should be given to parents of kids doing this (based on income, so rich parents can’t just pay their way out). These kids of behaviors are almost always because of the parents.
Finally, repeat offenders or those committing worse crimes should be charged and sentenced.
By all means put these social workers in the schools to deal with this behavior. Hell, we already have cops in them. But teachers (especially) and school administration should specialize in learning—not rehabilitation.
And if something like assault (beating up a kid) happens, it’s a crime. We have people to handle that.
Again, no one is saying schools should do nothing. My original point was schools alone cannot fix this, and the blame being pointed (almost entirely) at them in this article is weird.
The stance the school can take is that everything reported to the school will be given to the specialists for these kinds of problems.