Appeasement to Avoid Label of Racism

It is a shame that two teachers’ attempts to end an altercation between two teens at Ponchatoula Jr. High, has turned into a debacle.  It is a debacle because the higher ups in the Tangipahoa School System have chosen “appeasement” over unbiased judgement in resolving the outcomes of this incident by firing both teachers.   Ironically, if weapons had been involved in this situation, and the students were restrained by whatever methods were necessary, these teachers would be declared heroes rather than villains, as the administration has chosen to portray them.

Perhaps both the parents of these teens and the Tangipahoa administrators ought to consider what possibly could have happened if no one had intervened.  One or both of the teens could have been permanently injured or even dead, as was the outcome of a recent case of a young teenage girl who participated in a school fight and died afterwards from internal injuries.  Contrary to popular belief fists can rapidly escalate into lethal weapons and no one can predict when this will happen during an altercation.

Obviously, the Tangipahoa School System mired in segregation problems for years is very a tune to any situation that might smack of racial injustice.  Sadly, today, such injustice still exists far too often in our society.  However, sometimes situations occur that have nothing to do with race and these get lost in our society’s attempts to substitute “appeasement” for sound decisions to avoid the label of “racism.”
 

A more appropriate judgement in this case would have been suspension of the students coupled with the requirement that before students were readmitted to school that both the students and their parents participate in anger management or conflict resolution training, for parents do have a responsibility for their children’s behavior in society.

Additionally, the language of the teachers involved in restraining the students needed to be addressed by a written reprimand and a brush up course on harmlessly restraining individuals needed to be required.  However, many times in the heat of the moment it is difficult to maintain that language self-control aspect.

Based upon the school system’s decision to ruin the careers of these two teachers, I would suspect that next time a student altercation breaks out teachers will take pause and decline to intervene.   I can only imagine what those law suits will look like. The Tangipahoa School System needs to remember, “You reap, what you sow.”

It was a bad decision to fire these two individuals and it would take a strong person to admit it and rectify it.  However, I suspect the game plan here is for the teachers to spend a great deal of their limited resources by hiring attorneys and getting their firings overturned by the courts.  This would allow the “appeasement” decision to be protected and lets the person responsible for the decision avoid being labeled a “racist.”  So sad that it had to come to this low a level.