https://news.lee.net/tncms/asset/editorial/44aa0536-01a7-11ea-834d-2709df6add95/
Less of a rant, more of a critique. While I encourage anyone concerned about this issue – and its adult counterpart in workplace or church attacks – to read the article, there’s a glaring omission in the methodology being reported:
Schools HIDING behind privacy laws.
You read about some form of incident (attack, bullying, student or teacher impropriety) and the same excuse is always used: “This is considered an internal matter and the parties involved will be allowed to retain their privacy.”
I’ve always felt that minors in an incident should be shielded. Up to a point. The type and severity of a crime; and the immediate hard evidence (physical, not hearsay) are the deciding factors. Public schools are not some heavenly graced sanctuary where there can be no wrongdoing. If anything, the inclusion of phone technology provides an ability to review most of an incident.
[anecdote, c. 1975: I was in 7th grade when a student pulled a knife on our history teacher. Very strict guy. Retired Marine. Teacher disarmed student, student* ran off, only suspended for a week.] *student was a bully
40 years later, teachers and students murdered, culprit gets the juvenile system until age 21.
I think the point here is that, unlike the line in Rock & Roll High School, “…this will go on your permanent record, which will follow you through life…”; the bureaucracy has adopted the Las Vegas slogan: What happens in (school, work, etc.) stays in…
And the ever-increasing school bureaucracies conjure ever more complicated rules – not laws – to prevent open, honest discussion.
This report is an eye opener that local communities can use to craft real laws to rein in secrecy and ignorance in schools and other group systems.
Rants Unto the Ether 