Friday, April 11, 2008

Teen Violence


If you turn your TV or radio on today you will probably see or hear a news/talk show devoted to the topic of school violence. Big news the last few days has been the eight teens in Lakeland Florida who beat a fellow cheerleader because of something posted on Myspace. The local paper in Lakeland reports today that the girls are charged with kidnapping, battery, and tampering with a witness, and could face life in prison if convicted. We all know that won’t happen.

In Chicago, students have recently marched on the State of Illinois Building protesting for more gun control after a particularly violent few months where 20 teens have lost their lives to violence this year already. The fear was so bad at one Chicago public high school that parents were keeping their children home. I read a news story today about a 54 year old teacher in Baltimore who was sent to the hospital after being beaten by a student. At another local public high school, a student was arrested yesterday. He was found with a gun in his locker and ammunition on his person. This is not a inner city school but a mostly white suburban district. Any sane person would be frightened.

Fortunately, the school I teach at has only minor fights to deal with, and then only a few times a year. I have never been threatened by a student in all my years here, and only once was a teacher struck by a student. We suspend students for a first offense of fighting and put the student on probation. Last school year there were 4 fights the school administration had to deal with all year. A second offense will usually result in expulsion. Students are immediately expelled for having a weapon on campus, and while no gun has ever shown up a few students have been expelled over the years for knives.

You may be surprised that fights between girls are generally much more violent than those between boys. Boys don’t really want to fight, they want someone to step in and stop it. The altercation can easily be broken up by a teacher yelling stop. The fight is almost always over a girl or some perceived insult to one’s “woman” or “manhood.”
These altercations lack passion and are only face saving activities.

On the other hand, fights between girls are nasty, violent, and brutal. Girls fight in order to inflict pain and humiliation on each other. It is almost impossible to break the fight up without physically restraining the combatants. About 25 years ago I tried to break up a fight after school between two young ladies in the back hall of the main building. At the time I was 5’ 11” and 190 lbs and lifted weights three times a week. Both girls together weighed about as much as me. It took all my strength to hold them apart with my arms, each trying to climb over me to get at the other, until another teacher arrived and helped. Apparently, the boyfriend of one of the girls cheated on her with the other. One girl had a clump of hair in her hand and the other needed 7 stitches from a cut she received when she was pushed through a window. The girls were sophomores and the “cheating” incident had taken place when they were in 7th grade! When the disciplinary board meet with the girls another fight almost broke out between the parents of the girls. Both were expelled.
Fortunately, girls don't usually resort to weapons. Fists are much more personal and that's the way they like it.

It is silly to think that the world would be a safer place if women were in charge. We would probably have a nuclear exchange when the president of France made fun of the outfit worn by the president of Russia.

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