Public School?
The public school system my children are in is starting to scare me. I was okay when they sent a letter home informing us that drug dogs were going to be in residence on school grounds while children were there. I was okay with random, unannounced locker searches (they use the dogs to sniff out questionable lockers and open them in the presence of school officials).
That’s great. I’m all for protecting my children from being exposed to drugs and drug dealers. The dog program has been very successful, and only rarely do they ever find anything of illegal nature in the lockers.
What scares me about the school district, is this story of questionable validity that my son told me today.
A transfer student at his school apparently attempted to strangle a girl on campus today. To hear him tell it, “He grabbed her and swung her around and around, then he dropped her and ran away. She almost suffocated to death and now she’s in the hospital. The guy didn’t get very far though, and now he’s suspended.”
One student… nearly killed another.. and he’s been.. suspended? Where’s the local law enforcement when things like this happen?
Now.. granted I cannot take everything that my child tells me at face value, but somehow I suspect I will get a note home about this to let me know that my child is not in any danger. Any time anything like this happens, the school sends home a fact sheet so that parents aren’t freaked out about it.
If this is true, I have to wonder why there aren’t hall monitors in this school in the form of teachers standing at the entryways to their class rooms during passing periods and recess periods so that things like this can be stopped before someone is critically injured.
I hope it’s not true. If it is, I’ve got some questions for this school district.
May 20, 2005 3:45 pm 
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By Dave Justus, May 24, 2005 @ 2:55 pm
I am sure when the full story in known, you will find the punishment at least severe enough to satify you.
From the sound of the altercation though, if the discription is correct, hall monitors would not do any good. It sounds like it was perhaps a minute or two maximum.
Most likely, the girl got the wind knocked out of her. Regardless, even if we have the Boston Strangler Jr. here, and he was swinging her round and round by her neck, it seems unlikely he would be doing that for more than a few seconds, not long enough for any hall monitors to intervene.
By Random Gemini, May 24, 2005 @ 3:17 pm
I still have concerns about the lack of hall monitors in the school.
1. I think they are a huge deterrant for these behaviors.
2. What good is a system of rules without enforcement?
By Dave Justus, May 25, 2005 @ 7:48 am
I have my concerns about running a school like a prison.