Lessons from the 8th grade

Posted at 2:54 PM on May 16, 2011 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

The world is full of people who see wrongdoing and do nothing about it. Where do people learn to just keep their mouths shut? Maybe from 8th grade.

In Dayton, Ohio, an eighth grader has been banned from the school prom and class picnic because she told her mother two kids on a school bus were having sex. A Dayton TV station says the girl's mother told school officials, who promised to investigate. Their investigation concluded that the girl waited too long to tell someone what was happening on the bus on which there were eight adult chaperones.

"If they are not doing anything to the chaperones, how can they punish my daughter?" the mother said. She said her daughter was afraid of saying anything immediately because she didn't know what the boy would do. "Other students know, and we are afraid of possible retaliation," she said.

The two kids having sex were suspended, the TV station reports.

Comments (1)

Watching the reaction to this story makes me a bit concerned. I really think this is an issue of privacy as well as a lack of judgment by the school. Because of privacy, we cannot be sure the two students were having sex. What if the boy was the one the girl was going to attend prom with? Perhaps this girl's punishment was a result of the investigation revealing a revenge motive.

My point is don't take this story at face value because we were not privy to the evidence in the investigation done by the school. Compare this to the Duke Lacrosse team. The prosecutor more or less assumed the team members guilt, as well as the school by suspending the team. Turned out they weren't guilty at all (at least not of a crime, maybe of being immature or dumb). Things aren't always what they seem.

If the girl and her mom can go to the news with this, perhaps the school should be able to plead its side...which right now privacy prevents.

Posted by Eric | May 16, 2011 7:40 PM

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