SCHOOL PRINCIPALS seemingly have lost all sense. The latest example involves a 12-year-old girl in Queens, who was carted out of school in handcuffs for doodling her name on a desk with a lime-green erasable marker.
Alexa Gonzalez,(pictured right) a student at Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills, was taken to the police precinct,where she was detained for several hours and then her principal suspended her from school.
IT WAS A MISTAKE?
What was her principal, Marilyn Grant thinking? A spokesperson for the City Department of Education told the N.Y. Daily News "The principal made a mistake and has lifted the suspension."
City officials say Alexa's arrest shouldn't have happened.
A police spokesman told USA Today: "Even when we're asked to make an arrest, common sense should prevail, and discretion used in deciding whether an arrest or handcuffs are really necessary." Whose discretion? Do the police use their own common sense, or are they still obeying school principals?
IT SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED
A spokesman for the City Education Department said "Based on what we've seen so far, this shouldn't have happened," reports the Examiner.
Alexa said "I started crying, like, a lot."
Alexa's mama, Moraima Camacho, tells The Examiner "This whole situation has been a nightmare...My daughter was humiliated! Humiliated!" she tells the Gothamist. Indeed Alexa was reportedly throwing-up after the trauma.
WHEAND POLICE COMMON SENSE?
Cops should know how that feels since many upchuck themselves while in the line-of-duty. Most people know that it's a symptom of extreme fear. Now shouldn't cops be able to translate that feeling to children and understand that they too were over-reacting?
They should have had calmer, cooler heads and, instead of just doing what the principal told them to do, discussed with her a more appropriate action. For instance, have the child clean off her desk top -- it was an ERASABLE magic marker!
And what about Alexa's Spanish teacher who turned her in for doodling in her class? She probably thought Alexa was not paying attention. Well, Teach, avail yourself to recent research on doodling.
DOODLING RESEARCH
British researchers at the Medical Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge found that doodlers had 29 percent better recall than non-doodlers. So, although it is generally thought that doodling indicates daydreaming, it really doesn't.
Doodling may actually decrease those wandering thoughts and help focus the mind. The reason isn't known. But, the study results definitely show doodling aids concentration. There is an Ethic Soup post on this research.
Maybe, if school systems keep getting sued for millions and millions, then school boards will change their ridiculous "no-tolerance" rules to include some common sense. We're not talking actual property damage. And if the administrators don't get wise, perhaps the parents, voters and taxpayers will make their voices heard.
LACK OF COMMON SENSE
Our schools seem to have declared a moratorium on sound, practical judgment. It's when a teacher or principal or the police haven't got the sense God gave little green apples.
Or, as American Statesman Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) said:
"It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense."
Other Ethic Soup posts where educators and police have declared a moratorium on common sense:
TO READ "BULLY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL THREATENS SUSPENSION OF BOY OVER 2-INCH LEGO TOY GUN" CLICK HERE.
TO READ "WORDS 'ORAL SEX' CAUSE DICTIONARY TO BE BANNED IN CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT" CLICK HERE.
TO READ "MINORITY & SPECIAL NEEDS KIDS TASERED BY COP REPEATEDLY IN CLASS 'DEMOS' " CLICK HERE.
TO READ "AUTISTIC 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL ARRESTED & JAILED FOR TOUCHING TEACHERS" CLICK HERE.
TO READ "TEACHER REINSTATED AFTER AUTISTIC BOY VOTED OUT OF KINDERGARTEN" CLICK HERE.
TO READ "TEACHER'S ETHICS LESSON:DON'T BIND BLACK STUDENTS TO TEACH SLAVERY" CLICK HERE.
TO READ "SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS CODE OF ETHICS" CLICK HERE.
TO READ "CODE OF ETHICS: ASSN. AMERICAN EDUCATORS" CLICK HERE.
by Sharon McEachern
Comments