News-Record.com

One of the sickest, most disturbing trends in our popular culture today is the notion that not snitching on bad behavior is heroic.

You can actually buy tee-shirts that proudly trumpet anti-snitching attitudes. (Some students at my school have worn them.)

Such a notion puts us all at greater risk of being victims to violence and other harmful acts against us.

Our culture needs to fight against anti-snitching attitudes just as strongly as we need to fight against pro-gangsta-thug attitudes.

Being pro-gansta-thug is the moral equivalent of endorsing, embracing, and supporting the KKK, the Taliban, and other terrorist groups that thrive on intimidating and carrying out violence against others.

If you think there's a difference, you're engaging in a famous pasttime called rationalization.

To the anti-snitches out there, let me remind you of a concept that's often too loosely thrown around but does actually apply here: you're either part of the solution, or you're part of the problem.

Any failure to snitch that leads to someone being hurt, violated, or killed makes you a responsible party, deserving of blame and condemnation.

In other words, if you find yourself in the position of keeping information to yourself that might have prevented crimes against others, you need to accept your role as part of the problem.

Not snitching on potentially harmful, dangerous behavior means you're willing to sacrifice true victims in the name of standing up for people who almost universally only care about themselves.

One of the most famous snitches of all time was David Kaczynski.

David Kaczynski "sold-out" his older brother Ted (more famously known as the Unabomber).

Had he not, Ted's successful career as a terrorist might have lasted longer and resulted in more victims.

Knowing my relationship with my own brother, I cannot imagine how painful it must have been for David to inform the authorities that his brother might be the Unabomber.

When I ponder what it truly means to "do the right thing," it's clear to me that David Kaczynski not only successfully figured out the right thing to do but actually had the courage to do it in the name of greater good.

In the real world, both past and present, people like David Kaczynski are rare.

Like you, Doug, I regard the young man at Thomasville High School as a hero.

He deserves our admiration and praise.

Anti-snitches deserve nothing but our society's collective scorn.

Just as was true of the good-ole-boys who protected and defended our once-proudly-racist society, modern-day society's anti-snitches need to be challenged and strongly encouraged to rethink themselves.

Deena Hayes hates police snitches, you can expect any school "snitch" program to be met with her strident, racist resistance.

I think congratulations are also in order for the students, teachers and administration of Central High in light of their improvement in their ABC scores. It just goes to show what hard work, dedication (and just a little cherry picking of top students from another school whom you threatened with banishment to Andrews if they didn't enter your IB program)can do.

Here we all thought Dot was just an arrogant, half-crazy, bull in a china shop, who's obsession with racial make-up at schools instead of educational emphasis had driven public education in High Point back to the Stone Age. Here we now have some evidence that she may be right (at least for certain select institutions)-kidnapping kids might work.

In the eyes of Deena Hayes, I'm sure this student is a "snitch" for going to the police. Never mind that he may have saved numerous lives by doing so.

This success story points out the benefits of community-based police work - when the cops and the citizens work together to reduce crime. Yet the Guilford County Board of Education rejected this very approach when the Greensboro Police Department proposed a partnership.

And it wasn't just Hayes - she's only one board member. Others on the board apparently have that pathetic 1960s mindset of viewing law enforcement as the enemy.

As you pointed out in an earlier post, the recent school shooting in Pennsylvania point out the need for armed, uniformed school resource officers in our schools. Yet the Guilford County BOE was talking about doing away with those officers just last month.

I'm not a knee-jerk "bash the school board" type. But I am concerned about crime and violence in the schools - and the school board has dropped the ball badly on this issue.

Thanks for keeping this topic in the public eye, Doug. Maybe if enough people take notice, the school board will be forced to react, rather than pretend the police are the problem.

Mr. Floyd,

I wish you would communicate your thoughts to Deena Hayes. She killed a School Watch Program that the Greensboro Police wanted to implement that had potential to help rid our schools of unsafe elements, but Deena Hayes killed it because she said it would turn kids into snitches. She feels that the worst thing that one can be is a snitch. Predictably, once Deena put a racist spin on it, the rest of the board followed meekly along. They didn't want to oppose Deena and be called a racist. Yes, this actually happened in a school board meeting. Deena rules on the subject.

Great post Doug. THANK YOU for keeping this issue upfront. If only our current BOE would listen.

School Watch was voted down. Deena was afraid it would lead to a bigger pipeline to prison. The policeman who presented the program (after he was invited to present it) was humiliated in public at a BOE meeting after he spoke. After the events in our schools of the past week across our nation, I believe the time is here for this issue to be pursued. Although I wouldn't blame the police if they didn't want to be put in this position again.

If children are following the rules, they shouldn't have to worry about "snitches". Why do we even have school handbooks if all children don't need to follow the rules. Oh I forgot, it looks great on Reduced Suspension numbers.

Great observation, Skeet Club, the kidnapping did work for Central. The snitches who told parents to put their children at Central were right. Andrews is still at the bottom in this state.

Because Guilford County has raised me to be a race-based thinker, I'm wondering something...Was the snitcher white and the gun-toting perpetrator, black? If so, that's EXACTLY what Deena is afraid of. She's not concerned with safety, just the truth getting out that based on statistics, blacks are in trouble more in our schools. Forget that the kid was carrying a gun, was he black? That is the real concern.

Just a bit more evidence of the need for SROS in schools and better cooperation with local law enforcement.

According to a Web article posted this afternoon at news-record.com, suspects have been arrested in two recent murder cases.

In both cases, the alleged killers are teenagers - one is 18, the other 19. Now, I don't know if these young men were in school or not, but they certainly are high school age. If they aren't in school, chances are they haven't been out for long and probably were criminals then.

But the Guilford County School Board (or at least a majority of the board) says we don't need SROs and that kids who cooperate with cops are "snitches."