Chief Casady's latest post on elementary school violence is fascinating. Not just because it's a little disturbing that cops have been called to Lincoln elementary schools no fewer than 37 times so far this year. No, what I find most interesting is how the post is basically a brutally honest and harsh critique of LPS's response to "out of control" elementary students.
When I think back to my days at Calvert Elementary, I can recall several instances that, had they happened today, would have resulted in the police being called. Instead, to the best of my recollection the police were not summoned in any of the cases. I recall one problem child in particular, whom I will call "Shane". My second grade teacher had an awesome solution for dealing with his periodic angry outbursts: she sent Shane to the lunch room / gym, where there were padded support columns. Shane would go down there, box the columns for a while, and come back when he had sufficiently vented.
I'm not saying that calling the police is never a good idea, nor am I saying that "back in the day" tough situations were always handled better than they are today. I am merely noting a simple fact: there are often alternatives to calling the police that will result in equally good or better outcomes.
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Who supervised “Shane” while he was going to town on those padded columns (and in the halls to and from)? What happened when there was a class in the gym? How did your second grade teacher deal with the complaints of the other students’ parents?
I’m not saying that calling the police because a 6-year-old won’t come in from the playground is a good idea, but sometimes these issues aren’t as simplistic as we’d like to characterize them.
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