Two days after a school resource officer from Parkland, Florida goes to jail for doing nothing during an active massacre -(pulled off by a student with a troubled past), do you still want school districts to give a pass of "That's ok, honey"? School districts (of whom I am very critical for not acting ahead of the massacres) don't have too many options other than suspensions for consequences. Obviously help is needed also, but first discipline.
Do you use time out for your children when they have done something wrong?
Maybe one day, the offending child will become a writer like Stephen King or become a movie director/producer of macabra movie fame. Maybe one day the child will write the greatest love story ever told. But for dealing with the present behavior, the threatening picture had to be addressed.
What if you were the parent of David?
The mother of the "artist" child let The Press know…the school district did not go to the Press.
Just like the mother of the boy with whom I worked (violent
behavior, violent drawings), the parent of a troubled child took to the public
to voice concerns. The mother of my
student went to a bar and shared my workshop request. How do I know? Other parents told me. They were some of the parents who wrote their
own letters of concern so many years ago.
Since the mother of a child in Dennis Township, NJ went
public, some of us responded. Here is my
response. And below it is a response
with another point of view to my opinion.
School’s concern was well founded—
Regarding the October 20 story- “Stick figure sketch lands
boy, 7, on school suspension”: The stick figure drawing was published.
I still have the stick figure drawings and story line written by the child in my class along with his two friends. I gave the pictures to the school psychologist to let her know. As you know from previous posts how our relationship played out. Her concern did not include the impact on my class of 25 children- only on the one. I had to address the safety of all the children and staff who came into my class. Did the school district below have the greater good in mind. I think so.
Editorial:
The drawing shows very clearly that one named person is at
the receiving end of another person with a gun.
I would like to congratulate the child who did the right thing regarding
school safety. According to the article, the child who was given this picture
on the school bus gave it to his parents, who then contacted the school. The Dennis Township school district then took
action, based on a policy set in place because of the extremes in school
violence nationwide.
Every child and adult in every school has the right to be safe. When anyone, child or adult, violates the
right to be safe, action may and should be taken. In this case, a picture is worth a thousand
words. If a person stated that I am
going to kill you, even without a weapon, only a foolish person would not take
action.
Some may disagree with the type or amount of consequences
given for a poor choice, but consequences do occur naturally and logically. Now the school district should find out why
the incident occurred. The mother (of
the offending child), who chose to go public with her complaints, should be
grateful for the concern shown and should work with the school to solve the
problem.
Marian R. Carlino
October 10, 2007
The stick figure had a boy’s name David with another stick
figure, named "Me" holding a gun at the back of the David stick figure.
This is a response
from a reader online: (spelling errors of the response are not corrected)
No, Marian Carlino is an idiot who writes to the papers
frequently and spouts off nonsense. She
doesn’t understand that a 7 year old doesn’t possess the cognitive skills or
thought processes to sit and form intent that was alleged by the stupendously
stupid school district. The only danger
here was the risk of a paper cut. This
was a typical knee-jerk reaction by a bunch of morons who biggest concern is to
wrap up a days work in time to get home and watch Mork and Mindy reruns on TV
Land.
I hope this child’s mother sues the pants off the school
district and wins millions. Maybe then
voters will think twice before electing morons to the school board who make
stupid policies and actually elect a few people with intelligence. What was needed here was a careful, measured
response. Would it have killed the
principal to talk to the child and parent?
Maybe do a little education, you know, like schools are supposed to
do. Posted by Scott on Sat Oct 27, 2007
2:19 pm
Two other editorials thought the school district over
reacted. This is one. Both writers assumed a suspension was done
before talking to the parents.
Let’s lighten up on boy’s sketch
How complicated was the behavior of the second-grader who
was suspended for a day because his art work included a stick figure hold a
weapon pointed at another stick figure?
Did he know about the zero tolerance policy? Was he crying
for help? Or was he concerned about the president’s veto of the State
Children’s Health Insurance Program?
He’s 7 years old, for God’s sake.
Anthony Notturno
Villas
This is a close example of the one shown in the newspaper.. the picture from years ago was more descriptive in the direction of the gun.
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| PER THE WEBSITE FOR THIS ONE, A SECOND GRADER WAS SUSPENDED AFTER DRAWING THIS. |
The second grade child with whom I worked, stood up in an assembly (the only one to make the choice) when the narrator reading Casey at Bat, and pointed his hand at the mascot from a now defunct professional baseball team. The cue- "kill the umpire" It was after I wrote my workshop request. The child was suspended but after he came back to school, I was the one dismissed. (see other posts about that incident)
