Saturday, October 13, 2007

Parents Getting In On Kids’ Fight

This is a troubling trend in our culture.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of incidents involving adult family members who will come into the school and who resort to violence to settle disputes,” Yudice said. “We have to keep reminding ourselves that our schools are a reflection of our larger community.”

Police said the disturbance began when the two women and two teenage boys confronted another teenage boy in a school hallway. The group of four circled the lone other boy, who reportedly had gotten into a fight with one of the two boys earlier in the week. During the confrontation, the two women encouraged the boys to fight, police said, and also shouted at and threatened the surrounded boy, police said school staff members reported.

The 46-year-old security guard was treated for pain in his neck, elbow and ribs.

Police arrested Barry on suspicion of battery of a school official, resisting arrest, being on school property without authorization and disorderly conduct. The other woman, Adrianna Antionetta Boyd, 24, was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and being on school property without authorization.

Barry and Boyd remained in the Dane County Jail on Friday.

Also arrested after the disturbance were two of the boys, ages 14 and 15, both of Madison, police said.

Did you run the math on the ages?  One of the moms is 31.  The boys are 14 and 15.  So she had her kid when she was no older than 17. 

And, of course, no mention of fathers. 

I feel sorry for the teachers and staff who had to deal with this.

(2) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1154 hrs
Culture

  1. Hi Owen.

    Although I can see this happening more and more (parents willing to engage in adolescent behavior alongside their children) I don’t think you should encourage the idea that simply because a person became a parent at a young age, that this is the reason for their irresponsible behavior.  I became a mother at the age of nineteen, but I would never resort to these tactics.  To encourage this reasoning allows illegitimacy as an excuse for these peoples’ behavior.

    Granted, illegitimacy is one of the bigger problems facing our nation, because it does breed an entire generation of irresponsibility, but to use the age at which this person became a parent as a reason for her behavior only perpetrates more excuses for the crime in a society that seems hell-bent on destroying personal responsbility. 

    Adults should be expected to act like adults, regardless of the age of which they entered parenthood.  In my case, becoming a single mother at a young age made me more responsible, and more aware of my decisions and how they affected both my child and I.

    I’m not for one minute excusing illegitimacy and teen pregnancy.  In fact, I’m a huge proponent of abstinence before marriage as one solution to our ever-growing irresponsibility problem, but let’s not put the cart before the horse. This only allows for more excuses from the ‘poverty breeds crime’ crowd, while they refuse to address the real issue of sex prior to marriage and personal responsibility. 

    Thanks for the article!  Hope you don’t mind my slight dissent.

    Joey

    Posted by Joey @ Pheistyblog on October 14, 2007 at 1008 hrs


  2. “Yudice said. “We have to keep reminding ourselves that our schools are a reflection of our larger community.” “
    How true and it shows that Madison is going downhill rather quickly.  I have some friends who still live there and I talk to and read the news articles and one has to conclude that there are areas that are almost as bad as the inner city in Milwaukee.  Gun shots are heard all the time, robberies, assualts and vandalisim.  Gangs are running rampant while the people who are in charge act like ostriches with their head in the sand.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 14, 2007 at 1133 hrs


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