I, like many other parents, am full of mixed emotions on the situation in Decatur. Just like all parents I, too, want to be assured that my children are safe while in school. I want to see discipline administered quickly. I want to see the punishment fit the crime.
I also remember growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s, going to Chicago Vocational High School, and how fights were commonplace. Sure, looking back, they were wrong, but we were kids who were taught to fight our own battles and not to be pushed around. Times were different than in 1999, but have we progressed or are we regressing when it comes to teaching kids how to make life choices? Expulsion from school is the equivalent of the death penalty for a student. His or her education stops right then and there.
Alternative schools appear to be the current answer to the problem. My concern is whether these schools are quickly returning students to the mainstream after teaching them how to make the appropriate choices in life or if they are simply warehousing them until graduation.
Rev. Jackson pops up everywhere there is a camera, but in this case, just maybe he is asking the right question–i.e., is zero tolerance working and is it the answer to correcting behavior in our young people?
One thing is certain–without an education, none of these young people will be productive citizens.
