Exactly how did we get to this point?

NeilC

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NeilC
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Sep 1, 2005
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4886014.stm

How did we get to the stage where the police prosecute a 10 year old child for racist language in the playground? Is this just me or is this not totally insane? These are children we are talking about. I fail to see what this has gained that a few hundred lines wouldn't have solved - except of course they are banned from some schools as unfair punishment.

I'm trying to figure out which part of the politcal spectrum is the cause of this madness? Socialists, libertariansim?
 
When I was young (10 sounds about right...), I had never heard of the "N-word". A black kid called me the "N-word". Not knowing what it meant, I said it back at him. Since I'm white, that made me the bad guy.

I got a very very good talking-to about it. Apparently, repeating back an insult to someone is really really bad only if the word is bad enough. (The reason I consider it rather silly? The instructor asked me why the hell I would repeat an insult I heard; she didn't say that about any of the other hundreds of insults I repeated back as a youth. That screams "hypocrisy" to me -- she didn't even try to explain to me what the word meant!)

Pfeh. You can talk about political spectrum all you want. It's people being involved, not ideals; ideals don't dish out unfair punishment. And as long as people assume that the only way to teach someone something is by hitting them over the head, then we will continue to see unfair punishment.
 
Splossy said:
I'm trying to figure out which part of the politcal spectrum is the cause of this madness? Socialists, libertariansim?
Click to expand...

How about Conservative psychosis? Read the thread in my sig line and you'll really be surprised at how far some people are willing to take punishing children. :)
 
Splossy said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4886014.stm

How did we get to the stage where the police prosecute a 10 year old child for racist language in the playground? Is this just me or is this not totally insane? These are children we are talking about. I fail to see what this has gained that a few hundred lines wouldn't have solved - except of course they are banned from some schools as unfair punishment.

I'm trying to figure out which part of the politcal spectrum is the cause of this madness? Socialists, libertariansim?
Click to expand...

We got here because school boards and administrators are afraid of lawsuits. If you merely discipline a young offender, and they then go on to hurt someone physically or emotionally, you get hit with lawsuits. It's cheaper and easier to just throw the offender out, thereby washing your hands of the problem and making it more likely that he/she will go on to commit greater offenses.
 
See, the problem is they didn't address the kid's misbehavior at an earlier age:
MAYNARD, Mass. -- A family in Maynard is outraged after their 5-year-old daughter was forced to write a letter denouncing hugging after a classmate embraced her.


NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that Brenda Brier and Michael Marino pulled their daughter, Savannah, out of school early Wednesday. The couple was angry after a meeting with officials at the Greenmeadow Elementary School in Maynard, where Savannah is in kindergarten.


At issue is a hug Savannah said she got on the playground from a friend named Sophie. Savannah hugged Sophie back. The hugs resulted in Savannah having to write a letter, complete with teacher corrections, that read, "I touch Sophie because she touch me and I didn't like it because she was hugging me. I didn't like when she hugged me."


"She said, 'I'm really sad that I got in trouble for hugging,'" Brier said.
Click to expand...
Arms are for hugging. Well, not even that any more.
 
Splossy said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4886014.stm

How did we get to the stage where the police prosecute a 10 year old child for racist language in the playground? Is this just me or is this not totally insane? These are children we are talking about. I fail to see what this has gained that a few hundred lines wouldn't have solved - except of course they are banned from some schools as unfair punishment.

I'm trying to figure out which part of the politcal spectrum is the cause of this madness? Socialists, libertariansim?
Click to expand...

Please tell me you don't really misunderstand libertarianism this much. You must know this business has its roots in leftist political correctness.
 
Splossy said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4886014.stm

How did we get to the stage where the police prosecute a 10 year old child for racist language in the playground? Is this just me or is this not totally insane? These are children we are talking about. I fail to see what this has gained that a few hundred lines wouldn't have solved - except of course they are banned from some schools as unfair punishment.

I'm trying to figure out which part of the politcal spectrum is the cause of this madness? Socialists, libertariansim?
Click to expand...
Common sense became an oxymoron decades ago. Where you been?
 
This is totally left wing liberalism brought to you by our favorite left wing school system.

This is the one that tells kids that cutting down a tree is destroying nature. That you must recycle.

Pretty much whatever is on liberal agenda for the moment.
 
billydkid said:
Please tell me you don't really misunderstand libertarianism this much. You must know this business has its roots in leftist political correctness.
Click to expand...

Funny, given that "leftists" are "soft on crime" this would seem a whole lot more like the loonybins-right "lock them up and throw away the key, it's the law" to me.
 
Ok, ok, is there something we don't know about this case, or are the authorities gone stark raving whacko?

The whole bit about "lifting off the ground" sounds a whole lot like "after the fact". I mean, was either KID upset? Hello? Did anybody ask the KIDS if THEY were offended????
 
New Ager said:
This is totally left wing liberalism brought to you by our favorite left wing school system.

This is the one that tells kids that cutting down a tree is destroying nature. That you must recycle.

Pretty much whatever is on liberal agenda for the moment.
Click to expand...

Straw men
Burning so bright
They are Straw men


New ager speaks up.
New ager makes it all up.
What good new ager?
 
Stupidity knows no political bounds. Trying to classify this as a left problem or a right problem misses the point.
 
Splossy said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4886014.stm

How did we get to the stage where the police prosecute a 10 year old child for racist language in the playground?
Click to expand...
I suppose when someone drew their attention to the fact that a crime had been committed.

At that point, they could have said "Sorry, the law doesn't protect children from crime", but that wouldn't be true. Or they could have said "Sorry, the law doesn't hold children accountable for the crimes they commit", but that wouldn't be true either. So I guess they did their job instead.

If this means that some racist bully gets what he deserves, then this is a small price to pay for the rule of law. Indeed, I must confess, I can't really see it as a downside.
 
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school is just a little bootcamp for future adults. line up, march, sit, listen, work. this is where the bell curve shines. the middle just drones along. the top end gets sponsors. the bottom end gets lost in the mix. especially if the kids has learning disabilities and/or mental health issues. in the local h.s. nobody f*cks with the special ed kids, they have been labeled, medicated and ignored for so long they will explode with the least provocation real or imagined. a 10 year old nuts up and decent law abiding citizens start looking for a rope. lets hold the parents responsible. that'll fix it.
 
Splossy said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4886014.stm

How did we get to the stage where the police prosecute a 10 year old child for racist language in the playground? Is this just me or is this not totally insane? These are children we are talking about. I fail to see what this has gained that a few hundred lines wouldn't have solved - except of course they are banned from some schools as unfair punishment.

I'm trying to figure out which part of the politcal spectrum is the cause of this madness? Socialists, libertariansim?
Click to expand...

Um... water flowing underground?

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful
wife
And you may ask yourself-Well...How did I get here?

Once in a Lifetime
Click to expand...

It happens because we average folk don't bother to get involved while special interest groups are working overtime to cast the world in their image.
 
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