It seems as if people are MOST comfortable with violating the civil rights of children at will. The recent case of a 13-year-old Albuquerque boy is a prime example of this:
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 13-year-old was handcuffed and hauled off to a juvenile detention for burping in class, according to a lawsuit filed against an Albuquerque school principal, a teacher and school police officer. The boy was transported without his parents being notified in May after he “burped audibly” in PE class and his teacher called a school resource officer to complain he was disrupting her class. The lawsuit also details a separate Nov. 8 incident when the same student was forced to strip down to his underwear while five adults watched as he was accused of selling pot to another student; the boy was never charged.
It is understandable that disruptions in the classroom makes it difficult to manage students and can impact the effectiveness of instruction. Nevertheless, there is no reason why a burp — even if it was on purpose — should lead a child to a detention center. Furthermore, it is completely unacceptable that the student’s parents weren’t notified until after he was already shipped off.
On the matter of a school strip search, this type of humiliating violation of a child’s civil rights should never occur in school, ever. The message being sent to the child is that it is okay for an authority figure to force you to remove your clothes and inspect you until they are satisfied that you haven’t broken any of their rules.
How we socialize our children in the home and in school shapes who they become and how they react in response to authoritarian rule. This amounts to little more than thinly veiled bullying, which we already told you starts at the White House and not in our house. We often fail to see how the society socializes children to bow down and then wonder why the masses willingly submit as adults.
The answer is simple: we have been programmed to submit to all forms of authority, including teachers, employers, law enforcement officers, and others who present themselves as figures of authorities.
Sources:
Albuquerque School: 13-Year-Old Cuffed For Burp In Class
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