to think this is completely fucked up?

[malinois]

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/09/texas-police-schools

No words...

(please don't let this become a US-bashing thread; a Texas-bashing thread would be justified though)

BTW I don't think schools should have police patrols as part of their regular security and discipline system. I do think that when things go really bad schools should involve police more than they do though, if nothing else it might give one or two of these children a good, sharp shock. Too often children who behave in these ways are dealt with too softly, and they get no real consequence to their poor behaviour.

DDs school has a new headteacher he is really good and since he started the police have been in school more often while its terrible the police are there its good that situations are being dealt with iyswim ,

The scary thing is that there doesn't seem to be any middle-ground between "letting bad behaviour go unpunished" and "call in the police". There's a whole range of discipline options here that are just...missing.

At my children's school, if they act up, they are told off. Getting told off works because most of the time, they care when it happens. Their teachers' opinions of them matter to them. They mostly want to behave properly. But it sounds as if that's not happening in the schools mentioned in the article.

Actually, come to think of it, that's how it works at home as well. Generally speaking, my children want to be good and they want me to approve of them. If they didn't care about my opinion, I don't know what I'd do to be honest.

I don't know where it goes wrong, but I wish I did, because maybe then I could make sure it doesn't happen to my children. Is this going to happen to our kids too? Will they just stop wanting to behave in the right way?

Scary, scary thought.

Hulababy- what happened to you was terrible and yes, it was an offence and should have been dealt with accordingly. But some of the behaviour in this article is not criminal. Surely even Texas does not have a law against spraying yourself with perfume??? Why are the police even getting involved with that- the teacher should deal with it, just like she should have dealt with the children who were ganging up on her and calling her smelly in the first place.

Oh, I agree. and said the article was OTT.
I was responding to the statement about teachers being sacked if they can't cope with a child's behaviour.

Ninkynonker......what do you mean? It's not clear??

I would like the army in schools. Big men with shaven heads and huge guns. That would do it.

Texas is one of my fave places in the world, shame it has so many peculiarities.

I worked in an FE college in an area with a significant gang population. We had our own on-site policeman. I never saw it as anything other than a good thing. He dealt with violent incidents on campus, came to tutorials and discussed legal rights, (was very good at pointing out to 16 year old boys what rape actually is) and spent a lot of time talking to individual students about their fears, how to deal with stop and search and providing advice for their parents.

He was attached to the local police station but had an office within the college. From the time he stared at the college there was a noticable difference in the atmosphere. The college became known as a "safe" place for our students, male and femal alike. There's nothing like a quiet word from a man in uniform to give a bullied student a sense of safety and being taken seriously, and for the bully to know their actions have been noted by someone with authority.

Yes, UK schools have security, my last did. But nothing like this.

Hully, you need to put aside your fascination with men in uniform.