Discipline in schools

We all know that disciplining children in schools largely stopped with the start of integration. As schools began mixing children from more economically different groups, the children themselves had come from more disparate backgrounds. Some came from homes with rules and discipline; others did not. At that time many of the non-white children admitted to middle-class public schools were from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods and families. A higher percentage of these children were from single-parent families and had been "on their own" to a much greater extent than the average middle-class child of that time. These students, the majority of whom were non-white, presented a higher degree of disciplinary problems. School administrators did not want to be accused of being racially biased. They bent over backwards to avoid this eventuality; as a result, the standards of behavior were lowered for all students.

Teachers facing serious disciplinary problems were given less and less support in their attempts to impose behavioral limits, especially when the trouble-makers were non-white. School administrators feared the legion of lawyers eager to make bucks on racial conflicts, so they effectively disappeared. The teachers, left without adminstrative backup and fearing lawsuits or disciplinary actions themselves, adopted a "hands-off" policy toward all the students, irrespective of racial background.

Walk through any school hallway filled with 7th grade or higher grade students. The level of verbal and physical assault and sexual harassment is astonishing. If adults were to behave in this manner, criminal charges would be filed. But the young people in the hallways of these schools get no protection from frightened "authorities". There are few or no guardians to limit antisocial behavior. As a result, the kids live in a largely unpoliced jungle, where the bigger animals make their own rules. They turn to each other and form gangs. They lose any faith in the legal system or in the police. They are alienated from the system which does not, will not support and protect them. As adults they have learned that the only person who will look after them is themselves, and so they have no loyalty to the legal and political system.

Why should they? They depended on the adults to protect them, and we abandoned them to the lawyers and the gangs. We would never allow others to treat us in this fashion, but we do absolutely nothing to protect the children from their peers.

I want to be clear about this so that any argument is not based on irrelevant considerations: I favor school integration. I favored it when it happened and still do. This is not about race. I want all students of any color or background to be treated equally and equally required to obey the school regulations and society's laws. The disciplinary problem results from the sudden mixing of children from very different socio-economic backgrounds and not providing them with the protection from each other to which they were entitled. We have sowed the wind and we are reaping the whirlwind.