On May 8, 2007, I was knocked unconscious by a student while unlocking a classroom door at South Philadelphia High School. The perpetrator was never found and I had been left for dead. The incident at Bartram hit home. Since then, thousands of incidents -- very serious incidents, have happened upon the seriously good people in the city’s schools. In culmination, the shooting at Delaware Valley Charter on January 17 underscores that police and strict discipline are still and especially needed. Behavior, as ever, misses the form and consequences, if any should ensue, miss the point. Morally defective children who chronically misbehave should be appropriately disciplined. Sadly, many are not. This progressive moral relativism was first set upon by Arlene Ackerman and perpetuated by local building administrators who don’t enforce rules fairly and consistently, entrails of demeaning reform initiatives like “Imagine 2014”.
Call me old fashioned but I don’t like working in schools where life is mocked and ostensibly made perilous by children who glorify violence and death as societal goods, where the lessons they learn are “injure” or even “kill”. Children in general cannot be trusted to use their freedom responsibly because of poor parenting and poor school management. William Hite and the S.R.C. may not "move forward” by blithely and erroneously dismissing violence for a falsely perceived want of education funding and poverty. The folks deserve better. Public schools can work much as they always have but the veritable chamber of horrors of tolerance and accommodation do not trump the gospels of responsibility and common sense. Children may have a right to a free and fair public education but they do not have a right to disrupt the educational process. The teachers made a decision to educate children. They did not choose to be abused. People need to wise up.
