Chigger wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2024 7:23 am
Sorry but I'm not one to believe that the schools are responsible for dealing with mentally unstable kids. Neither are the police.
They have certain jobs to do and baby sitting is not one of them.
It isn't babysitting. As a former SRO and as a parent. Society has entrusted certain institutions to keep kids safe and to educate them. Not to cast them as if they're trash. Dumping a kid on police because he or she is "acting out" when it very well could be caused by something else isn't the right thing to do. A lot of kids come from bad homes, couple that with emotional abuse and being treated like shit by the schools. No wonder some become bad apples. It is all levels of screwed up.
When I was an SRO, there were certain kids who at the start of the year were troubled kids. By the end of the year, I was able to make a positive impact in their lives that they got better grades, felt better about themselves, did better, etc.... I made sure to make school feel welcoming for them even if their home lives were crap.
One of the schools I worked, was for troubled teenagers. It was the last place for 'em before the Miami-Dade School system bumped 'em. Some of those kids I helped went to do good things. A number enlisted and served, others went to college, others started businesses. But they all thanked me because I wouldn't give up on them.
The elementary schools I worked were the hardest. Because some staff wanted me to cuff and stuff a special ed seven year old for having a bad day. No, sorry... a little kid who's having a bad day at school because of trouble at home, doesn't result in being arrested and carted off to juvenile detention. That results in taking the kid aside, talking to the kid, feeling him out, getting the kid to express himself and what the troubles are, etc....
Little kids are still figuring out how to express and manage emotions and feelings. School is one of the places where they should have an environment on how to learn on how to do that.
A good school just doesn't teach education. It teaches a kid on how to function and deal with issues. Interacting with society, dealing with stressors, dealing with emotions, etc....