11 Year Old Arrested Following Confrontation with Teacher
This recent story from Florida, USA began with an 11 year old boy refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance when a substitute teacher was in charge of the classroom, saying the flag and national anthem are racist against black people.
The situation escalated, the student yelled at an administrative dean and an officer and ended up arrested.
I read some of the comments on the article, some in support of the teacher, some in support of the student.
Racism exists, no question about it. I abhor real racism more than most people, if the situation with the Warcraft servers is reflective of the overall world population (though one could easily argue it is not as readily as that it is).
But is *everything* racist? Ie. if a black person commits a crime and is arrested the same as any other person would be who had committed the same crime, is that racist? Of course not. Why isn't physical appearance highlighted in *every* altercation, fight, incident. (Ie. White Florida inmates rescue white baby locked in vehicle, White man kills white wife in hot tub, black man stabs black man, black man rapes white woman, etc.). White on white violence, black on black violence, and black on white violence is largely unannounced. It's the white on black cases that make the news to push the view that black people are more victimized by white people than other people in America today when the statistics and reality don't match the story. People of all types of appearances act inappropriately or violently and people of all types of appearances can be victimized. There certainly has been racial oppression in the past and racism is alive in many people of all colors. But not everything is about race. Bad behavior is bad behavior, no matter who does it. And if the consequences are applied evenly to any person doing the same behavior, it isn't racist when it's applied to some. If consequences for the same behavior are not comparable in numerous similar cases with evidence of ongoing systemic discrimination with regards to treatment of individuals committing the same crimes, then that's a sign of a problem needing fixing.
The preoccupation with physical appearance is somewhat silly, because the truth is that we are all really the same race, the human race, and we come in splendid variety.
The real questions with the incident are more to do with what's appropriate behavior and who decides and how are the standards applied and so on.
There are simple and complex ways to look at the same situation. Simply, in this situation, a kid became unruly and argued with and allegedly threatened school staff, resulting in police being called in to deal with the boy. Someone else could look at this situation and see that, simply, this boy's right to freedom of speech and behavior at school was disregarded and he was standing up for himself. (If that's the case, why did he wait for a substitute teacher to show up before making his case?)
To look at it in a more complex way, you could consider every facet of the situation individually and add them all up to see societal trends.
1. The teacher was a substitute. It's very common for students to take advantage of substitute teachers and act out and try to get away with various things because they sense that the sub is not familiar with the students or school and is new. Did that play a part in this situation?
2. Some people say contradictory things, like "The boy was exercising his right to free speech! If anyone should be arrested, the teacher should (I suppose for exercising her right to free speech)." The idea is basically "if you agree with me, it's free speech to say it. If you don't agree with me, you should be arrested for saying something."
3. Rebellion for the sake of rebellion isn't courageous. Rebelling against authority (that is put in place to keep society orderly and civilized and safe), if done on mass scale will lead to utter chaos, including crime and death. Rebelling against corrupt authority shouldn't happen in a corrupt way if you are standing against corruption. Doesn't make much sense to become the thing you hate and condemn.
4. Why is it the police's responsibility to discipline unruly children? The first responsibility falls to the parents. If the parents give that responsibility to a school, then the school is next in line. Now not even schools can handle kids anymore, and the police are called in to discipline kids because apparently no one else knows how or is allowed to do it.
When kids are arrested at school, people tend to focus on the fact that you have a poor young person and supposedly police involvement is "excessive", but what isn't often addressed is what behavior the kid was actually doing and how it was affecting the classroom and other students.
Here's an example video of out of control behavior. How exactly *are* the schools supposed to handle it? You can't touch kids nowadays. If you talk to them and they ignore you, then what? You're powerless. Many kids today feel invincible and have no respect for authority, whether it's parents, teachers, or police. Should you just let any kid who wants to jump on cafeteria tables while screaming and shouting do it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCIaRBsUOCI
5. Should America promote love of country to its children? Should America promote hate of country to its children? Should America be ambivalent or even silent about itself? Can a parent be neutral with regards to loving or hating the family? "You can either respect us or disrespect us as we feed, clothe, bathe, teach, and care for you, and you are entitled to all family benefits and have no responsibilities towards us whatsoever!" You can love the good things your country stands for without embracing or tolerating the bad things it has done, like you can love your child or parent or friend without approving of everything they have ever done or said.
Rebellion, shouting, and the like in an effort to bring about healing or change are likely to be ineffective, and in a classroom, are unfairly disrupting the other students' ability to learn the material.
Should children recite the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem? Are the flag and pledge racist against blacks? If someone decides they don't want to say the Pledge, then what should happen? I'm gonna give this last topic some more thought and do some more reading and come back to it later.
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