Last week 25 students were arrested following a food fight at a Chicago middle school. the food fight, however it started, escalated to the point where the school's resource officer had to call for back-up to get the situation under control. three students were injured. Twenty-five students were pulled from school and charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct charges. Was it necessary to arrest these students? I reluctantly say yes for a variety of reasons.
Parents of the arrested students are angry that their kids will possibly have a juvenile record. the parents feel a record will have negative effects on the students' ability to get jobs or gain entrance into college. Well, yes, your child made a made choice and there will be consequences. the local fast food spot probably doesn't want to hire a teenage employee with a history of throwing food. Students competing for college spots and financial aid shouldn't lose out to a student who purposely, and accurately, threw an apple at someone else.
We also have to look at the worst case scenario. It may have started with a cookie, moved to an apple, but it was reported that someone threw a cafeteria tray. Now one student is out of ammunition; what's left- the cafeteria chair? three students were injured. One may assume these injuries were minor because the press made little of them, but you can't rule out the possibility that someone could have been seriously injured.
Perhaps the biggest reason that it was necessary to bring in law enforcement was the fear of litigation. I learned a new term while researching this blog; defensive teaching. I think this is a good example of how schools have to view situations as potential lawsuits. I can see the headlines if arrests were not made; "Student sues over fear of cafeteria," Cafeteria worker awarded worker's compensation for inhospitable work environment," and yes, "Teacher sues district for dry cleaning bill resulting from food fight." These may sound silly but in our litigious society I think anything is possible.
Some of the comments, (warning language in some comments could be offensive) found online call the food fight a "right of passage." I don't remember ever having or hearing about a food fight while in school. Others felt the discipline was too extreme and the school should have handled it in house. the fact that schools have resource officers says a lot about the ineffectiveness of detention or suspension to discipline students. of course there were comments bashing the teachers on duty. Although I make the claim, I really don't have eyes in the back of my head. I have lunch duty with one other person and 85 or so students. We can't catch everyone who is contemplating throwing food.
It's sad to say but I do agree the arrests were necessary. perhaps the court will throw out the charges, maybe not. I'd be interested in other opinions, should the school have handled this in house or was it inevitable that the courts would get involved?
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I considered this article for my blog this week. It certainly makes you think about why things are the way they are. You know, it seems to me that things have gotten to this point because schools have absolutely no success with dealing with parents of students that need discipline. Parents will defend and back their kids to no end even if the kid is guilty of the alleged offense. Like the father in the article about defensive teaching. He punished his kid for lighting a firecracker in school by making him get up at 8 am on Saturdays to mow the lawn. What? And this guy was a life long military person. This kid could have blinded someone with the exploding firecracker, or any number of serious outcomes, so he has to mow the lawn? No wonder the schools throw up their hands. The only entity that people respect/fear/appreciate is the law. They scoff in the face of school authority. So it has to be handled by the law and the court. Boo hoo if your little Johnny has a 'record' because of his bad choices. Deal with it at home then.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure we all have our horror stories of how a parent 'took care' of a situation with their child/student that absolutely shocked you. We had a couple students that stole gas cards which enable them to charge endless gas for their vehicles and racked up 1,000's$ in charges before they finally got caught. The worst thing that happened to these kids was one of them lost the use of their car for a few weeks. No legal recourse, no repayment of the charges. And one of the parents still thought their kid should receive a community service award at graduation. Argh!!
I think the law should get involved until kids fear the punishment of their parents more than anything like it was decades ago.
Elizabeth Haraseth
Personally, I feel the arrests were extreme. Yes, unfortunately people were injuried. Yes, there is a resource officer in the school. Many schools today have resource officers, especially since the Columbine shooting. It isn't necessarily because of discipline issues. I do, believe that the school should have handled it themselves. But I do agree with you that we are a sue-happy society and chances are there could have been a lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school we had at least one food fight a year. Typically it was the seniors and it just became tradition. But the seniors were then expected to clean the cafeteria. It was a little fun that didn't cost a whole lot of money. Lunches were already paid for. Wasteful? Yes. Fun? Definitely! However, I also don't recall anyone getting hurt.
I COMPLETELY agree with you and Elizabeth on this issue. Apparently it got so far out of hand that reinforcements were needed and injuries were caused. The students involved should be charged and held accountable for their actions. Public destruction was also caused and this alone is an offense. This wasn't a food fight that got "a little" carried away where teachers and administrators could deal with. This particular food fight went well beyond "little." Repercussions is a necessity.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting article. I did not hear of this situation until I read your blog. I have to agree with the arrests. It may seem extreme but I have to tell myself that we don't know everything about the situation and obviously law enforcements are not going to arrest someone for a thrown apple. It is possible that these students have a background of this and had run out of warnings or maybe the injuries came from physical attacks during the food fight and not a tray hitting them in a head or something. I just personally think that had to be an intense situation because a resource officer and current staff could not control the situation. I fully trust decisions that are made by law enforcement and in some ridiculous situations like this you have to make a stance so it doens't continue to happen. I think this is similar to bully situations. There needs to be a no tolerance level and as far as the parents of these students go I think they need to realize that their child needs this life lesson and hopefully they will learn from this. There comes a time to pay the consequences for such behavior.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog!
I completely agree that the arrest where necessary. Three students were hurt and regardless of whether it was a food fight or not they caused three students to get hurt. There parents have no right to be mad. If they would have taught their children to be respectful clear thinking individuals the food fight would have never happened. I always teach my children that the choices we make dictate the life we lead. This may end up hurting the students but they should have thought about that before they started it.
ReplyDeleteGREAT article,
Blaire
Hello-
ReplyDeleteI agree with you all the way. The students should have been arrested and face the music for committing a crime. If they injured 3 students then it should be common sense to punish them. What else could the school district have done? What message would have it sent to other students if they would have gotten a slap on the rist? Nothing. The parents need to stop trying to pretend like this is no big deal. I am tired of parents always blaming someone else for the actions of their kids.
I remember a food fight in 8th grade and all the kids that started it got in big trouble over it.
We have gotten to the point that parents honestly believe disciplining their kids is inappropriate for anyone else to do. Forget the fact they do not discipline their kids at home, but if we give them ISS or OSS or even get them sent to Juvy, we are doing them an injustice. I really cannot remember the day a child got rights. Can you? When I was younger, I had no rights, they were all privileges. That was a great thing. A reward system for doing the right thing. Now its a reward system for doing the wrong thing. Do you think that these kids really would have learned anything if an administrator had simply talked to them, told them not to do it again, and called home? NO! It is time for the real consequences for real inappropriate behavior to come back. If they started a food fight in the real world, or let alone their job, they would be fired, arrested for assault or battery, or worse, got their butts kicked. Give real consequences for real wrong doings is all I'm saying.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. I too think jail was appropriate for this situation. They were only in jail for about 5 hours. I think this was very important "think" time. I was so surprised by your blog, I made my husband listen to me read it to him. I then read a bunch of the comments and wow, would I love to give some of them a piece of my mind. Most people don't understand what can happen in a school and how fast things can get out of hand. I read one comment that said "food fights these days have more fight than food". I totally agree. This could have been more than just a food fight and I think your idea of the court system getting involved is right on the nose. Parents or a teacher could sue the school for the most absurd reasons. I think calling the cops was exactly the right step the school needed to take.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog!
Jenna
After reading your blog, I had a difficult time saying that I agree with you or disagree with you. Last week our 8th graders had a food fight. No one was hurt and the students served ISS (in school suspension) for a few days. I can see that the students should be held accountable for their action since students got hurt. How do they know who started it and who to arrest. It is a no win situation for everyone. If the student were not held accountable you could risk a lawsuit from the student who were hurt and by arresting the students who were in the food fight, the parents could sue the school for deflimation of character. To many people in our world are sue happy...Look at McDonalds being sued for the women who burnt herself on coffee.
ReplyDelete