A NEWS STORY the other day about a 7-year-old arrested for assaulting a teacher is just one more proof that parents are failing their children.
In south Florida, where I hang my hat, it is – sadly – not unusual to read or hear about a young person killing someone. Many times, the shooting is “just because.”
Children, toddlers, are shot standing in their yards. Older kids are randomly shot as they play on a playground.
THE SHOOTINGS ARE NOT a gun control issue; people have owned firearms for years and never – repeat, never – shot anyone (save for perhaps in combat for their country).
There were kids in schools with me who were dangerous – in my day the “weapon of choice” usually was a switch blade a la Blackboard Jungle, “zip guns” while known, rarely were even considered in my area. Granted, this was south Florida c 1950, not New York, Chicago, or LA.
If a kid got into trouble at school, he often preferred to stay at school rather than go home to “face the music.” The “music” often was what now would be called “child abuse”; worst case, a blistered backside or, for “progressive” parents, strictly enforced restrictions on the child’s activities.
The liberals and leftists have “spared the rod” and now the spoiled child is running amok with a gun, perhaps stolen from a parent too careless to secure the weapon.
My position is that while the children commit the crimes, the REAL criminals are the parents.
Parents who, for whatever reason, failed to instill into their children respect for themselves and for others. Parents who, when their child is arrested, tell the child “Don’t worry, they (the authorities) won’t do anything to you.”
My first born is a cop. When a juvenile is arrested in his jurisdiction, the youth knows that he, or she, will be back on the streets in 72 hours – or less. (Exceptions are capital crimes.)
That is, I suppose, no worse than a recidivist drunk driver going to court, getting his (or her) license revoked, and then walking out of the courthouse, getting into his (or her) car and driving away, effectively (a) giving a middle finger salute to the law and (b) providing his (or her) off-spring another bad example to follow.
- There once was a judge in Sarasota County FL, Becky Titus, who required convicted drunk drivers to place a bumper sticker on the drunk’s car. Later, a bill was introduced in Florida1 similar to bills in Michigan and Ohio that would identify drunk drivers on their car’s license plates. The ACLU opposed the bill while a California law firm calls the practice “shameful.”2
Yes, Virginia, there are many females with lengthy DUI records, some with vehicular manslaughter included.
Raising children to think they are “above the law,” entitled, is bad parenting. No one is suggesting that anyone mistreat a child, but neither should the parents encourage anti-social behavior such as assault and battery on a teacher or wildly firing a gun anywhere. (Even shooting ranges don’t permits untargeted shots.)
Children are sponges – what they see or hear their parents do or say tells them what they can do or say.
Manners have gone the way of the Raphus cucullatus3.
Perhaps a restoration of what once were considered “good manners” might help educate parents who, in turn, would educate their children by example.
A child may pull the trigger or assault a teacher, but the bottom line is that the child’s parent must bear at least some responsibility for the child’s action.
Telling the child that “Don’t worry, they can’t do anything to you” is NOT responsible parenting.
Sources
1. Florida bill: http://tinyurl.com/y85w38t2
2. DUIAnswer: http://tinyurl.com/yczjt7bn
3. Raphus cucullatus: Dodo bird
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
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