Parents out of control
What can you say about the shameful behavior of some parents attending a holiday program at Oak Hill Elementary School last night? (WGHP FOX 8 has video.)
We'll try to come up with something for tomorrow's lead editorial.
Oak Hill is in High Point's West End, where police and local churches have done a great job cleaning up crime and addressing other social problems. It's a very diverse school except for the common denominator of low income. I tutored there for three years in the early 2000s and always found a very orderly environment there. The school hasn't experienced unusual disciplinary problems among students.
Then this happens. The question is how to react to it. What responsibility does the school system have for dealing with disorderly parents? Very limited, I'd say -- other than banning the brawlers from future school events.
Your opinion?
Comments (7)
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Hi Doug.
See http://erikhuey.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/parents-fight-at-oak-hills-christmas-program-fox-8/ for my discussion on this.
I told Allen this morning that it is sad because we as parents have high expectations for our children, and then some of the parents act worse than children. And then our superintendent of schools send out an e-mail LOADED with grammatical errors.
We went wrong somewhere.
Posted on December 19, 2007 11:29 AM
You gotta love it -
Posted on December 19, 2007 11:49 AM
Why are we discussing this as a school-related incident? Assault and battery are criminal offenses. These parents are not "brawlers"; they are people engaged in violent, criminal behavior on school property. We should be hearing from the High Point Police and the District Attorney. Are these laws not enforced on school property?
If the school failed to notify the police, then those at the school responsible for this event are culpable and should be dismissed. Violence of this sort should not be tolerated anywhere in society; it should be prosecuted to full extent when it occurs on school grounds.
Posted on December 19, 2007 3:03 PM
Tony, police are investigating and hopefully some charges will be filed. Obviously something like this affects the schools, too. Banning those parents from coming back is a good step.
E.C., I'm not inclined to be too hard on someone for making grammatical errors in an email before 8 a.m. The important thing is that school officials have been forthcoming with information.
Posted on December 19, 2007 3:50 PM
It was a week before Chrisrtmas (12-18-07) and all
through the school, the "parents", not the students
were acting like fools. The children stood back and watched the attack. They covered their face,shamed and disgraced. Now Mom & Dad,and
Grandparents too; there's no other choice but to
punished you. Not only are you grounded and
can't use the phone, the computer is off limit, so
leave it alone. We hope this punishment for you
is ample; now start being parents and set good
examples. What you did was naughty not nice,
Before you act up again, please think about it twice!!!!!!
Posted on December 19, 2007 7:43 PM
It was a week before Chrisrtmas (12-18-07) and all
through the school, the "parents", not the students
were acting like fools. The children stood back and watched the attack. They covered their face,shamed and disgraced. Now Mom & Dad,and
Grandparents too; there's no other choice but to
punished you. Not only are you grounded and
can't use the phone, the computer is off limit, so
leave it alone. We hope this punishment for you
is ample; now start being parents and set good
examples. What you did was naughty not nice,
Before you act up again, please think about it twice!!!!!!
Posted on December 19, 2007 7:43 PM
"It's a very diverse school except for the common denominator of low income."
I'd say that's the only diversity that really matters. In other words, if we want to talk about social and cultural difference, we'd be better off taking income as a basis than we would taking race, creed, color, national origin, and the other preferred icons of diversity fetishism.
Posted on December 20, 2007 3:05 AM