Ladies and Gentlemen: To all readers of The Right Rant. I must again go on an all out moral tirade. I have sat by quietly and watched the developements unfold over the Warren Township sex scandal. I can no longer remain silent.
I am outraged at the school district's behavior over this incident. A simple recap for the uninformed out there. Two 6th graders engaged in sexual intercourse during class. The industrial arts teacher stated that this could not have been noticed, because both students were hunkered down under a cubicle in the classroom. The act was discovered after another student ( one of the trysting couples lookouts), was detained for a seperate offense , and this child tried to offset his punishment by passing info about the scenario.
Why did the superintendent try to cover this up? Why was the teacher not reprimanded? How can something like this go "unnoticed"? I am without answers. I am baffled to the cover up. I feel that the school board should have immediately dealt with all parties concerned and further informed the remaining students that this is not acceptable behavior, and is not tolerated - ever.
I am also distressed at the situation in general. 6th graders having sex- help, I am losing air here. These are 12 year olds, children, not even teens, yet. How can the community have missed the signals of this occurence? When did they become so lax that nothing matters?
I am posting this with 2 motives. First, those of us with children, should obviously review our own actions and thoughts, to make sure our kids do not get caught in the same trap. This must be stopped and it must be stopped now. I am concerned for diseases, maturity, ability to handle a situation, pregnancy, puberty, et al. Second, our future. Has the country fallen so far that this could be considered acceptable. If we carefully look at the Roman empire, there are many troubling similarities. Lets stop that trend, with the curtailing of this behavior. I welcome your comments and suggestions. I have sent a similar letter to the superintendent in my school district, and intend to take this up with a state representative that I know.
8 comments:
Why are you so shocked that 7th graders are having sex? If you examine the statistics, the pregnancy rate first rises sharply at about age 13. This means that kids are having sex regularly, all over the world. What's shocking is the school hiding it. I believe that to be the exception rather than the rule. Generally you can trust the school to prevent this kind of thing from taking place. About all you can do is talk to your kids and scare the hell out of them, but in a way that doesn't make them think sex is dirty, just inappropriate until adulthood. Good luck with that given what's on TV 24/7.
There is plenty of blame to go around here. First is the school for allowing kids to be unattended for long enough to have sex. Second is the moral decline of our culture in general. Like billb said, watch TV one night and you would think it is your civic duty to go out and hook up with everybody you see. And three, most of the blame goes to the parents. They turn their kids over to the government for daycare and education thinking their responsibility ends there. Ed referred to that in his post "Sucking at the government teat".
Kids reared by the TV will act like what they watch. I'll be these are absent parents from the standpoint of quality interaction on a regular basis.
The stupid teacher acted like he had done something wrong by hiding it, and then the school administrators compounded it by being secretive and dismissive of the whole thing. Nobody did anything wrong here but the kids...and maybe the parents.
The lesson is don't act guilty if you didn't do anythng wrong. But what do you expect from government education bureaucrats?
Sixth Graders having sexual intercourse - in a classroom full of students. I'll query again. How can we say that the teacher/ administrators did nothing wrong. When we drop our kids at school, isn't it incumbent on the educators to provide a safe learning environment? If this doesn't border on unsafe, I don't know what does. I am not sure about any reprecussions to the students for their actions, but if this is allowed to go unchecked I wonder how soon this boy and girl will be trying to partner up for another romp or partner with another potential victim. I just wonder how long and deep the emotional scars will be?
Was it cool? Well I talked to my 7th grade son and my 8th grade daughter about their thoughts and impressions on this. Their responses were quite revealing. Both said that nothing of this magnitude had happened at their school, but they had both heard "stories" of sexual encounters in the 8th grade kids ( none involved intercourse, but still they are troubling). Both kids told me of their thoughts, and luckily for me, neither expressed anything other than disgust over the incident(s).
I am not surprised by this at all. I am shocked that even absentee parens aren't outraged over this and that more people aren't demanding some internal adjustments so that this behavior is eliminated in the Middle Schools of America. I know factually that a local Birmingham HS has stopped/interrupted a number of on campus oral sex encounters during school hours. I am saying that those acts were any way acceptable, it is at least "teen" related and not bordering on predatory. Kids will be kids, this I know, but I think that as parents we must reign in these hormonal driven youngsters and teach them a lesson on values, respect and morals. They are obviously absent from 2 homes in the Warren Township area of Indiana.
From what I can tell, nobody preyed on anybody here. These kids had lookouts, and they pre-planned the whole thing. Sure the teacher has a responsibility to keep up with the kids in his class, but what if he is called to the office for some admin. business? Kids are resourceful when they want to be and these kids clearly intended to do this. They just needed an opportunity.
I wonder about my 12yo kid on long field trips and what he might be exposed to on the bus as it comes home at night. With 30-40 kids under each teacher's supervision, there are always opportunities for hanky-panky if there are willing participants. These kids should be in that town's version of a Crossroads School for juvenile delinquents, as an example to other kids who might want to repeat their adventure.
What I heard was that the boy was and has been pushing this little girl for this for some time. He set up the lookouts, supposedly promising them some of her action later, and basically coerced into participation. This may be completely wrong, but if remotely accurate - well then we got a whole new can-o-worms. I agree with the Juvy school approach, but I also feel that the system needs to self discipline as well. I wonder, Ed, knowing what you know, now, would you let your child go on a Warren Township schoolbus fieldtrip at all?
I wonder, Ed, knowing what you know, now, would you let your child go on a Warren Township schoolbus fieldtrip at all?
Not without a critical mass of parent-chaperones and teachers on board. I've heard of things, not this outrageous, happening among kids who attend our kid's school. It's scary.
All I can do is make sure I know where and with whom he is hanging out...all the time. So far, he's picked a good group of friends with whom to associate but I'm under no illusions that he can't be talked into behaving badly.
Vigilance is the operative word for us parents these days.
Amen Brother, Amen!!
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