Right. So the first behavior. Well. The behavior itself isn't, at first blush, all that serious. But the impulse control issues involved may well be. Disruptive behaviors in classrooms are disruptive whether they are threatening or not. My guess it wasn't threatening, in this case, but it was nonetheless disrupting. At some point disruptive behavior must be dealt with.
Newsworthy. No. Not even a little bit. Mom's reaction is what caused the newspaper article. Maybe she's overreacting. But I know we took my son out of public schools when we learned that some of his behavior problems were rooted in borderline abuse on the part of school administrators. Toward pretty much every boy in grades 4-6. Girls, not so much.
Interesting...but I'm not convinced it applies in the case of this news story.
The second: somebody taught those kids that it was a thing to do, intentionally or not. That somebody needs to be confronted about it and the children brought in line. The person who "taught" them this may be unaware of it (we've all tried to spy on our parents at times we know they believe are inappropriate, sometimes we even succeeded), but they may also be guilty of nothing short of child abuse. It is important to find out. Moreover, the kids involved need to be separated. Kids certainly experiment in inappropriate ways at that age, but it has its limits. The teacher may or may not be culpable.
Newsworthy? Maybe. Probably not.
The Moral Majority is neither, but they certainly hold sway over our media.
You don't work music, you play it.
Discipline is not the enemy of fun.
