A couple of weeks ago I saw a story in my local paper about assaults on teachers by parents:

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 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.

It appears there'd been taunts directed against the shooter's son on the athletic field.

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.”

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!)