By Steve Levy
Two recent articles about our schools demonstrate how our lax culture has created enormous problems for our children and our school system. One article exemplifies how violent students are assaulting teachers and getting away with it. Another notes that one out of five students on Long Island is now chronically absent.
Why are these things happening? It’s very obvious. It’s a lack of consequences.
Let’s take violence in schools. A video that’s gone viral shows a student slapping a teacher, while other students are filming it on their phones and laughing in the background. There was a time when such an atrocity would lead to the expulsion of that student. Note, we said expulsion, not just a slap on the wrist with a two-day suspension. https://nypost.com/2024/04/17/us-news/north-carolina-high-school-student-charged-with-assault-after-slapping-teacher/
But this has changed in the era of wokeness. Many of our crazy leaders, best exemplified by Marxist former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, promoted critical race theory, which looked at every issue through the prism of race. When it came to school discipline, they noticed that Black and Hispanic students were being punished disproportionally to other groups. They automatically assumed that it must be a racist application of the disciplinary findings. That was totally made up. https://manhattan.institute/article/classroom-chaos-de-blasios-poisonous-gift-to-ny-kids
Administrators would historically punish people based on who was committing the assaults and were not looking at their race. Nevertheless, because the number of individuals penalized exceeded the actual population count of people within that demographic, our crazy woke leaders simply stop enforcing discipline. The message went out to the students that they can attack their teachers and get away with it.
It’s also astonishing that almost 20% of our students are chronically absent. But why should they feel the need to show up if they know they’re going to bepromoted, no matter what? When I was growing up, there was always a concern that, if you failed your courses, if you were a terror in the classroom, or if you simply didn’t show up, you had the threat of being left back, and no one wanted that. https://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/chronically-absent-on-li-cjfhsaou
Those days are long gone, which shows why we’re in such a mess today.
The mindset that created the problem in our schools is the same one that created the problem with fare evaders in our transit system. If there are no consequences to jumping the turnstiles, people are going to do it. It’s common sense. It’s human nature.
Ultimately, it’s the fault of the voter, who continues to reelect these out-of-touch leftists who have told the violent disruptors that they are in charge, and nothing will happen to them when they assault their law-abiding, peaceful neighbors.
Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.: He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com