Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Crazy Crap / Education Zero Tolerance Strikes Again
Posted by Tracy Moore on Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 11:54 AM
Taylor Cummings, 17, a senior at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School, had been butting heads with his coaches. He logged onto Facebook at home on Jan. 3 and wrote, among other things, "I'ma kill em all." He was suspended the next day and expelled Jan. 14, Cummings and his family say. School officials decline to discuss the case but say they have suspended and expelled students in the past for infractions that involved social networks, text messaging, email and other technologies.There's a long and storied debate about zero tolerance (or "zero intelligence") policies and whether they work, and most folks agree that kids who bring guns to school with a list of who they're going to off need the kind of attention public school systems aren't equipped to give them. What's at issue now is the facility of modern technology -- Facebook, texting, emailing -- to give disgruntled, frustrated or disconnected students a public forum to express their grievances. Heck, in my day, you could routinely make lists of everyone you hated, or anonymously spray-paint that a certain French teacher sux dix -- now the virtual world forces a certain kind of ownership of such a witty observation. (Note to kids: Use message boards. Stay anonymous!) Still, supporters of ZT policies say they create the appropriate fear-based environment to scare bad kids out of bringing real threats to the school environment. Critics say innocent kids' academic lives are ruined at a time when their judgment is most formative and tenuous, and that the kids most often targeted in these cases are -- shocker -- minorities. Taylor Cummings is black, and he apparently has "no history of school violence or suspensions," but that didn't stop a board from upholding the ruling to expel him. Where were the teachers who could speak on his behalf, the parents of fellow athletes, the very coaches he trained under, to rally to his defense? Cummings apologized for the remark and explained it wasn't literal. A college-bound student who plans to go to law school, Cummings told the newspaper: "I have a lot of regrets about the situation, especially the outcome," he says, "but I am not willing to let it define me or what I can accomplish." Sounds like a real bad seed. In a potentially positive twist, Metro schools recently decided that principals could review cases to be considered under zero tolerance policy rather than have them automatically go to a disciplinary board. One step forward?
Comments (6)
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I read this in USA Today. Let's forget the so-called Constitutional issues here. For those of us who are, say, 40 years or older what would your parent(s) have done if you posted (assuming computers were around!) the same language. The computer would have been gone and the writer grounded. Today kids think they have all the liberties in the world without being held for their actions. What was the school system to do. They have foremost duty to provide their employees a safe hassle-free work enviornment. Until we as adults take the stand an tell our kids that their truly is a write and wrong in what you can write this sort of nonsense will continue to clog the courts and derive real litigants their timely hour in front of the bench. Shame on this kids parents for not being parents and taking his computer away.
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You have no way of knowing if his parents did take his computer away, what his punishment at home has beem or how his parents reacted in the privacy of their own home. Zero Tolerance is an ill-thought, rash, cookie cutter solution to a mutltitude of problems. Believe me, in 16 years of Metro I have heard them all...or at least enough to know the wrong-headedness of black and white answers to gray issues. Also having been in close proximity to a student who got caught up in the post-accusation kangaroo court conducted by Metro (hello Ralph Thompson it starts with you) that experience showed that the numerous letters written on behalf of this student from coaches, teachers, teammates, fellow students, parents, clergy, employers, and Eagle Scout leaders, meant absolutely nothing and were not read by one person. It was this student---who through 12 years had an impeccable record---word against the word of an out-of-zone student in the school all of two weeks, who has since gotten in trouble numerous times. There was not a whit of supporting evidence, yet the accused's last year of high school was ruined. He has since been completely exonerated, but that does not bring back his senior year, or the colleges that had been looking at him. Clearly this case is different, and Taylor Cummings made a grave error in judgement and did something incredibly stupid. But I have seen kids beat the crap out of other kids and get suspended for 10 days, then come back to school to continue to harrass their victim. Where is the justice. The entire MNPS discipline system needs an overhaul...along with so much else in the system. Dr. Register must feel like he's playing a game of whackamole. I know as an imvolved parent I do.
If there is any universal truth it is that officialdom in any form eventually transforms itself into a tail wagging the dog. So, we are treated to the utter stupidity of the trashing of one of our best and brightest. (Not unlike strip searching a wheel-chair ridden gramma' at airport check-in because her number came up or demanding age proof ID from a toothless, white-haired septuagenarian before he can buy a can of beer.) Taylor's only misdeed is his unsophisticated, unwise seventeen year old's selection of words. And just exactly what the hell is the purpose of education but to instill wisdom.
Of course, he would have been better off, and meant the same thing, if he'd said “I'ma turn a bag of cockroaches loose in their office.” That would have circumvented their 'fuck up just once' hair trigger.
To hell with 'em Taylor. Get your diplomas, pass the bar exam and raise merry hell with officialdom run amok for the rest of your life. Your life-work is revealed to you, bless Gaw'd. Shoot, with the right kind of representation you could even get an early career start with a sticky little legal action right now.
Go for it Bubba. You've been challenged.
As far as I know and have read.....if you actually research this, the kid was suspended and not expelled for the FB post. He was expelled for a confrontation against administration during or after the suspension. Also, no one should assume this is the first disciplinary action. I don't agree with zero tolerance but there is a lot of hype and not all the facts in the press. I would rather the kid not be expelled but this is not the simple story as its being portrayed. Also, the FB post was quite vile and suspension was appropriate.
