A Moral Outrage Affecting Florida’s Children That Will Make You Angry

By Leah Postelnik
YC/Staff
Dec. 16, 2009

I am writing you today about a glaring problem that no one is doing anything about.

Various state representatives have initiated educational reforms to combat some of the most egregious problems in our educational system.

Representative Dorothy Hukill, in particular, deserves high praise for her bill to ban the use of “restraining rooms” for special needs students in our schools.

Yet there is an even greater outrage that must be outlawed. Schools have taken to calling police and arresting children over classroom disruptions.

If teachers and principals cannot think of some other form of punishment, then they have no business teaching – period.

As a point of reference, here are two of the most shameful news stories on this issue:

School Arrests 6 Year Old

School Arrests 9 Year Old – Just One of Many

From the article: “According to the In 2007, Lee County’s Juvenile Assessment Center processed 19 children younger than 9 for criminal offenses.

This year, there have been nine – and 13 who were 10; 21 who were 11.”

It’s more than time for us to do something about this situation. Children can be given a host of effective disciplinary measures, all of which are more effective than the shear insanity outlined above.

Repetitive line writing has trained more than one child to follow along with the rest of the class.

Especially difficult cases can be handled by forcing the student to clean the entire schoolyard if necessary.

Both of these measures get the message through to the child and neither causes long term trauma or complete and utter hatred of school as an institution.

Arresting a child is not only dumb, it’s wantonly harmful. Is there a doubt in anyone’s mind that, by and large, those children will detest school and never again feel a desire to succeed?

Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that they will generally drop out of school at the earliest opportunity?

If we’re looking to breed a new generation criminals, then such measures are undoubtedly the way to go.

But if we’re looking to raise students, this egregious practice must be stopped.

If the situation continues, once elected, my first bill will be one to prohibit schools from requesting law enforcement for nonviolent disruptions.

But we shouldn’t wait until November and I urge you to contact current representatives throughout the state and demand that action be taken on this issue.

DCF Insanity

In other news, it has been discovered that the Department of Children and Families is allowing convicted felons to run daycare centers and to work in the field of child care.

Their excuse for this utter idiocy is that DCF believes in second chances.

Well I believe in redemption too!

I believe that recalcitrant drug felons, prostitutes and small time burglars can be given jobs in customer service, in business relations and, if need be, even be given bureaucratic jobs at DCF.

The most able of them can go on to run businesses. But I rightly draw the line at the preposterously incorrigible idea of giving them license to care for Florida’s children!

This is exactly what happens when bureaucrats are left to their own devices and I pledge to be a sledgehammer of common sense on this and other matters of importance.

Editor’s Note: We would like to know if you know of any other cases that we at the Chronicle can investigate.

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com