Messages By: harleybiker803

Watching the show today made me decide to register and air my views and opinions.  Re: the student and the bus driver. 

I am the father of a high school student.  16y/o female.  She is in her junior year and is an honor student with goals of military college and the Marine Corps.  She is one of the top cadets in her Navy JROTC program.  She is one of the leading cadets in the drill teams which compete on a national level.  I have always been active in her school and her mother and I do what we can to help in all her activites.  She is a very well behaved young lady who gives us harldy any trouble.  She is very respectful of both of us, as parents, and very respectful to others, both, peers and adults.  But she also is very strong willed and has a mind of her own.  Something her mother and I have never tried to squash.  We both have taught her to be a leader and not a follower.  Not to back down when she is right but rather plead her case to come to some mutual understanding with, both, peers and adults.  She has made us proud.  We have had 3 other children we have put through school.  They have all done well.  Again we are proud of them all. 

But.  Here is what I am seeing now.  It seems to be a constant battle between teachers and students.  Student handbooks are over an inch thick now.  My daughter comes home angry a lot of the times due to a teacher(s) that have been given the power of complete control over the students.  I watch my daughter come home with hours of homework that she can't get done in the time frame the teachers are requesting it done.  She's up to midnight and beyond every night trying to get it all done.  In talking to her teachers they each individually say that they don't care what the other teachers are doing but fully expect their homework assignments get done each and every day.  With the teachers I have talked to, to get answers and work out a possible solution, I feel like they are chastizing me for speaking with them.  Right now my daughter begs me not to talk to any of her teachers as when I do they take it out on her the next day.  She is not the only one that is having this problem.  Many of us parents have echoed the same thing coming from their children,plus concerned that their kids are coming home with mountains of homework.  The school administration says its the government mandates for students making this happen.  They are discouraged and angry over the treatment they recieve in the schools.  All treated like young criminals.  Teachers won't listen to them.  If a student asks questions they are not getting answers.  If the student persists for an answer or explanation to a problem they are threatened with being written up and suspended. 

Teachers have been given the power of dictatorship and a lot of them use it.  When some of the better teachers are complaining about other teachers and the way they treat their students then you know there is something there that is not right.  I could go on with some pretty eye opening war stories about the past 2 years of my daughters high school teachers.  Then to think and know that her school is one of the best ones in the state.  Always getting awards for their achievements in excellence. 

Watching that video about the bus driver and student.  With all I see and am involved in with teachers of this day and age I give my sympathy and understanding to that student.  I would like to hear what else she has to contend with in an everyday school setting.  Was this the straw that broke the camels back?  Now a bus driver is acting like the teachers she has to contend with everyday too.  School personnel know that they aren't going to be held accountable for their emotional abuse to the students.  School policies have made it that way.  We have too many teahcers that shouldn't be teaching.  That's a nationwide problem.  We have teachers that are highly prejudise.  Those who are lazy and there only for a paycheck.  High school teachers that think they are college professors.  I've seen all those types in several schools. 

People wonder why more and more of our youth are causing problems and acting out on our streets.  A good hard look at what they have to contend with in the schools might and will lead to some answers.  Most kids want to learn.  Most kids want to be respectful.  But they also want respect and the oppertunity to learn at their level. 

I would like to see that bus driver held accountable for her actions and that other girl (the bus drivers daughter, I believe) for also getting into the fight.  Unless that student was creating a safety issue in which the bus driver had to do something right then and there, it should of been handled in a lot better method by that driver.  But in that video it looked like the bus driver aggrivated the situation to that level and needs to own her share of that incident. 

People. Listen to your kids when they are having problems in school.   Don't always assume the school personnel are always right and your child is always wrong.  Public schools are hard enough.  Don't add to it by brushing your kids off as the guilty parties in every matter.  The schools really do have teachers that need to go find employment in a different line of work. 

I work with many of the students, both in and out of school.  At booster club fundraisers, JROTC competitions, local disaster events and  road trips.  Amazing the respect I get for giving respect back.  I instruct many courses for the American Red Cross.  In which I have many area high school students, in addition to adults,  taking my courses.  I see  youth that, when given the chance, are great citizens of our country.  They are willing to learn and help whereever they can.  They are just asking to be treated with the respect they are required to show others.  Is that too much for them to ask?  I am an adult and know better but if I got the treatment that I have witnessed some of our teachers giving their students I would lash out too. 

A a retired police officer, that was working during the time they dropped the legal age to 18 for a period of time, there was a lot higher instance of DUI arrests with the 18 to 20 years olds.  When it as legal to drink they took advantage of that out in public places where they would of, before, been denied the alcoholic beverages.  Then got in their vehicles and drove on the highways.  When it  was illegal for them to drink they tended to go to private parties and due to the added charges of illegally drinking, plus having to be grilled on who furnished them with those beverages, it was found that the illegal drinkers would avoid the authorities as much as they could.  When the drinking age returned to 21 we saw a big decline of DUI arrests and accidents. 

My thoughts and experiences tend to show me that they will get it if they want it.  The teens that would rather wait to legal drinking age and stay out of possible trouble, will wait.  When you legally make it available to them they will then tend to use that privilage for having no fear of prosecution.  But forget that drinking and driving is a bigger offense with bigger and many times fatal consequences. 

Footnote....I personally would like to see drinking alcohol banned entirely. 

This society has become sue happy.  You can sue for anything. What is a sad state of affairs is that lawyers are willing to file a suit for you, for a huge retainer and fees, over anything and everything and our courts allow them to be heard no matter how rediculous they are.  Even worse is that huge awards are given for very frivilous reasons.  Many times huge awards are given to people who cause their own problems despite the warnings posted for your own protection.  Or plain common sense.  I bring to mind the woman who sued McDonalds for their hot coffee injuring her.  What part of "HOT' didn't she understand. What would she of done if they, in order to prevent anything like from happening, gave her luke warm coffee?  She could of sued them for advertising hot coffee and got warm instead.  That was a suit that should of never been litigated.  For anyone that is interested in seeing just what some people sue over and get big awards just do a search of stupid lawsuits. 

Then there are the ones that have a ligitiment reason to sue.  The ones, due to the frivilious ones clogging up our legal systems, take forever to resolve.  Often times the one filing the suit give up or settle for very little in compensation.  On occasion some people make it their personal goals to do something and let it be known to all what goes on in our world.  But most take it and walk away hoping to never be caught in something like that again.  This instance is one that needs to be taken to that level and I hope she wins.  But I doubt that it will prevent that from happening over and over to others. 

It is unsettling that people working in enviroments where they have the utmost control over other people, in the name of secuity or professionals that have control over you for any reason, take that to mean they can abuse people and people have no recourse without adding to the problem.  The lady that got beaten at the airport.  If she had fought back she, most likely, would of added the charges of resisting and assult on security staff.   You put some people in that power, they abuse it with little or no worry of being accountable for their actions.  It's got to a sorry state where people in authority can abuse and beat on you and you can't fight back without severe legal implications. 

Where does it stop when authorities have the power to do as they please for little or no reason?  You see it in all forms and in all agencies that deal with the public.  People given a position and the right to be bullies anytime they feel the urge.  I think this is becoming a sorry society we are living in.  From our schools to life in general.  You get wronged and what you face are those who care less other then the dollar figure.  It's more a battle over the dollar amount then fixing the problem. 

I, personally, only have sued one person in my lifetime.  It was due to the attempt of an individual to cheat me out of thousands of dollars.  I won but it took two years and thousands of dollars to win my case.  When it should of, by reasonable people, been settled it in a few minutes.  The ones that made out the most.  lawyers on both sides.  I have many instances where I could of sued over many things according to our society but wouldn't.  Because it was just plain stupid.