Lamberton School principal Marla Travis Jones was assaulted on the job this month.
Her alleged assailants were not students, but, rather, a student's mother and older brother - each of whom she estimates was five inches taller than she is and outweighed her by more than 100 pounds.
"It was the first time in my life anybody ever put their hands on me. I just couldn't believe it," said the 5-foot, 105-pound Travis Jones, who suffered a swollen eye, scratches and soreness after the attack March 9 at the school in the Overbrook Park section of Philadelphia.
As of Feb. 28, 57 such assaults by parents or other adults were reported in the 185,000-student Philadelphia School District this school year, about the same number as last year, officials said.
In addition, there were nearly 200 cases in which adults - mostly family members - were accused of threatening staff and students, verbally abusing them, vandalizing property, or causing other disruptions in and near schools. These events are detailed in a summary of school police reports by the state's Safe Schools Advocate.
I didn't really think it worth my time writing a post about it. Not sure why, probably thought other things were more important. Nor did it seem to be a "national" issue. (Well, I do remember seeing a schoolbus driver dragged out of his bus and beaten by the mother of a boy he'd thrown off the bus, but that was in Berkeley.) I have never taught school, and I guess I grew up in a sheltered atmosphere where parents didn't attack teachers. In fact, when I was a kid, if I got in trouble with a teacher, my biggest fear was that it might get back to my parents, and I'd be the one attacked.
I recalled the Inquirer article when I saw today's story of a man who went on a rampage because he was unhappy with his son's football coach.
CANTON, Texas (AP) - The father of a high school football player shot and wounded the team's coach with an assault rifle Thursday and fled in a pickup loaded with weapons, claiming to have a hit list, state officials said.
Schools in the district were locked down while police searched for the shooter. Officers had weapons drawn near a truck that was found about two hours after the shooting and apparently belonged to suspect Jeffrey Doyle Robertson.
Police were investigating a possible motive for Robertson, 45, in the shooting of Canton High School football coach Gary Joe Kinne. The coach was shot while on campus.
Police Chief Mike Echols said Robertson had been banned from campus and told not to attend school functions. Authorities had reports that the two had an "altercation" after Kinne took over the football program in 2003, said state Department of Public Safety officer Jasmine Andresen.
Interestingly, the coach's son was a star quarterback (subject of many disappearing Google-cached stories), who'd had to prove himself against other teammates (most likely including the son of the guy who shot his dad):
Things were tough for G.J. Kinne when he arrived at Canton just before two-a-days last season and took over as quarterback as a 14-year-old freshman.
He had to learn a new system while getting to know an entire team, most of which had played together since grade school. The season ended with Kinne racking up 1,650 yards passing and leading Class 3A Canton to the playoffs for the first time in 39 years.
The family made the move from Mesquite when his father Gary Kinne came to the East Texas school for his first head coaching job.
G.J. Kinne's performance was good last season. But now that he's gained the confidence of the team and the maturity that comes from starting 12 games, Kinne has blossomed.
In just five games he's almost surpassed his passing total for last season in leading Canton to a 5-0 record. In Friday's 47-21 win over Class 4A Athens, he threw for 465 yards and six touchdowns and ran for 57 yards and another score.
"It was real tough last year," he said. "I think it was hard for them to accept me. They didn't know anything about me. At such a small school, when you know everyone, anything new is scary.
"Every week I had prove myself. It was like a game within a game.”
Yet the kids apparently worked this stuff out among themselves. Till one dad blew up.
I find myself wondering how many kids are more mature than their parents.
I never like to see people being blamed for the actions of others -- and the idea of kids being blamed for their parents' actions is particularly atrocious. (I sure wouldn't want to be Jeffrey Doyal Robertson's son right now.)
There are bad people in this world, and I don't think they exist because some political faction or another created a "climate." When things like this happen, liberals tend to blame conservatives, and conservatives tend to blame liberals. Libertarians generally blame neither of these two "sides" but agree with conservatives on the need to punish the guilty.
(While it's a bit off the immediate subject, I think libertarians get a little tired of being blamed by both sides for on the one hand "coldness and insensitivity," and alternatively, for an "anything goes" philosophy . . . But that's the price one pays for being a "conservative" to a liberal and a "liberal" to a conservative. Lots of blame to go around, and it has to land somewhere!)
posted by Eric on 04.07.05 at 04:35 PM
Comments
And yet, in some ways, these teachers are like activist judges, so I wonder. Of course, I would never say that such attacks are justified or acceptable, but I wonder if they are understandable in this context. People are really tired of teachers who are out of control. The checks and balances aren't there. I think this is just a symptom.
bink · April 7, 2005 5:42 PM
Although I agree that the partisan "blame game" is played by all sides, I would like to make an observation: Assaults on teachers, police officers, clergy, and so on were traditionally regarded as more heinous than attacks on ordinary citizens, because they were also attacks on society. Then, in the 60's, there were increasing arguments from "progressives" that nobody was better than anybody else and therefore this traditional attitude was unacceptably elitist and perhaps even racist. (I was a child at the time and well remember encountering these worrying and at the time confusing arguments.) I'm not saying that such attacks are now more common simply because of a liberal assault on traditional values, but I do think it played a role by loosening societal taboos.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
And yet, in some ways, these teachers are like activist judges, so I wonder. Of course, I would never say that such attacks are justified or acceptable, but I wonder if they are understandable in this context. People are really tired of teachers who are out of control. The checks and balances aren't there. I think this is just a symptom.