Horrible! Kids Today!!!

THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE

Long story short, at least 9 third graders were involved in a plot to attack their teacher. They brought weapons, tape, handcuffs, etc. Each student had an assigned task such as covering the windows and cleaning up afterwards.

http://perezhilton.com/2008-04-01-he...106#more-17127

Any thoughts? I'm speechless!

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Originally Posted by python.princess

THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE

Long story short, at least 9 third graders were involved in a plot to attack their teacher. They brought weapons, tape, handcuffs, etc. Each student had an assigned task such as covering the windows and cleaning up afterwards.

http://perezhilton.com/2008-04-01-he...106#more-17127

Any thoughts? I'm speechless!

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What is wrong with kids now days :O :mad: :mad:.I cant wait to hear from thier parents

Wow. That's all I gotta say is Wow. When third-grade kids start getting violent, you know things are going downhill.

That is sick... but I'm, sad to say, not really surprised.

What's wrong with kids today?? The culture and parents who are too lazy/afraid/uncaring! Whereas parents should be going against the more damaging aspects of the culture (increased violence in the news and on TV, apparent reduction in correction of crimes) to teach their kids that those things are wrong, instead they are practically rugs allowing their kids to do anything and everything without much, if any, correction or instruction. There seems to be a general 'Blah' attitude toward parenting these days! I have seen numerous occasions where a parent would be talking to another adult and completely ignoring their child...even when the child HIT said parent to try getting their attention, they just pushed the hand away and went right on talking. That's how it starts...

Now, I'm not saying EVERY parent is like this, of course... but the numbers are increasing and, therefore, so are incidents like the one in that news story.

Thats just crazy!

I'm not proud of it now but I got suspended for throwing eggs and water bombs at a particularly vile teacher in the equivalent of 7th grade. Kids can do bad things but that's nothing new and it doesn't mean they are going to grow up as monsters. They are 8-9 years old and not exactly in full possession of their faculties.
It actually concerns me far, far more than they are treating children of that age as criminals than any stupid games they were playing.

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Originally Posted by kurgan

I'm not proud of it now but I got suspended for throwing eggs and water bombs at a particularly vile teacher in the equivalent of 7th grade. Kids can do bad things but that's nothing new and it doesn't mean they are going to grow up as monsters. They are 8-9 years old and not exactly in full possession of their faculties.
It actually concerns me far, far more than they are treating children of that age as criminals than any stupid games they were playing.

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You're comparing water balloons to steak knifes and hand cuffs? Kind of a big difference there.

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Originally Posted by python.princess

You're comparing water balloons to steak knifes and hand cuffs? Kind of a big difference there.

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In my middle school days a few friends and I TP'd a nasty teachers house REALLY well. Non-lethal antics are the way to go...whats wrong with kids...trade in those knives for thumb tacks on her chair, or silly string, or a bucket of water over the door.

Look I'm not saying things are all ok but the fact remains that they are 9 years old. Perex Hilton is not exactly the most reliable source to begin with and even he does not claim they attacked anyone with a steak knife, I'd be amazed if it was anything but a stupid game. And can you seriously imagine a 8 or 9 year old handcuffing a teacher?
Badly behaved children are not hardened criminals, they are children.

Perezhilton.com copied (and credited) this article http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080401/...4y.0M2ZdRvzwcF word for word. That just happened to be where I came across it.

I'm not saying that they definitely would've gone through with it if given the chance but it's very possible. Here's some interesting reading material. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...8175326AASf2y6
Basically what it means is that if even one or two kids had the courage to go through with it, the others likely would've followed. Especially at that age when all kids want to be liked and accepted by their peers. I can remember teasing a kid in school, not because I didn't like him, but because all the other kids were and I would've stuck out (and likely been teased too) if I didn't. I'm sure we all have had those moments. I'm sure not all of them are bad kids. Most of them are probably pretty good students. But the fact remains that the situation could easily have turned out worse if another student hadn't snitched.

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Originally Posted by kurgan

Look I'm not saying things are all ok but the fact remains that they are 9 years old. Perex Hilton is not exactly the most reliable source to begin with and even he does not claim they attacked anyone with a steak knife, I'd be amazed if it was anything but a stupid game. And can you seriously imagine a 8 or 9 year old handcuffing a teacher?
Badly behaved children are not hardened criminals, they are children.

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This happened in my state, and according to what I heard on the local news, the prosecuter is planning to file charges against the three oldest in juvenile court as "unruly children", since that's the only charge he can legally bring against them. While the children didn't intend to kill the teacher, the nine year old girl that organized this wanted the teacher to be tortured.

Here's the Atlanta Journal-Constitution story about it:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met...ge_tab_newstab

Man, you know what I was doing in the third grade? Waiting to go out for second recess then going home and watching Mr. Rogers and Reading Rainbow.... I loved reading rainbow!

Currently my sister and I are working in different elementary schools. Me in MD and my sister in NC. I've student taught and volunteered and worked in many different schools. The kids are all the same.

They just don't care anymore. The parents don't care. Having a kid suspended or sitting on the wall for recess no longer works since parents are not doing their job. Thus these kids think they can get away with anything.

I hear second grade boys telling girls to suck their "you know what". It's sad. Back in my day it was unheard of to even think about talking back to a teacher. What a lot of schools do now is instead of a kid being flat out bad they put a behavioral label on them as an excuse. These kids get everything. I had to take away an iPhone from a 5th grader the other day. They have myspaces and facebooks. I know it's not every parent but a majority of it is.

Sorry for the long rant. It's just a sore subject.

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Originally Posted by SteelerFreak89

Currently my sister and I are working in different elementary schools. Me in MD and my sister in NC. I've student taught and volunteered and worked in many different schools. The kids are all the same.

They just don't care anymore. The parents don't care. Having a kid suspended or sitting on the wall for recess no longer works since parents are not doing their job. Thus these kids think they can get away with anything.

I hear second grade boys telling girls to suck their "you know what". It's sad. Back in my day it was unheard of to even think about talking back to a teacher. What a lot of schools do now is instead of a kid being flat out bad they put a behavioral label on them as an excuse. These kids get everything. I had to take away an iPhone from a 5th grader the other day. They have myspaces and facebooks. I know it's not every parent but a majority of it is.

Sorry for the long rant. It's just a sore subject.

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No Patrick, kids are not all the same. Kids that have parents that aren't too afraid or too lazy or too self-involved to actually parent even when it's not fun don't have to be like that. I hope as an educator you don't already have the opinion that "the kids are all the same" because as a parent, I know they aren't. If your school district isn't making and enforcing rules for appropriate behaviour, if you are willing to write kids off as a whole and if you have parents that think that school is just somewhere to dump their kids for the day before hauling them home to further ignore them....then there is a problem much greater than unruly children (in my opinion).

It's awfully easy to just say "kids! blech!" but it's the adults in their lives that make the decisions, do the role modelling and should have the willingness to set rules and standards with appropriate consequence. In the end we carry a weight of responsibility that in our current society is often not bothered with much, not popular, too much work, etc.

I can tell you this having seen school violence (far worse than what these kids were planning) first hand and loosing friends to it. I can tell you that the impact of even a threat like this effects every one in the school. These kids need help and they need intervention now. For a group for third grades to plot and try to carry out an attack is a huge thing. who is to blame?? The list is to long and I wont go into it. But I can tell you these kids need help fast.

Wow, that's nuts.

Out of curiousity, is this school located in a bad area of GA?

I teach at an elementary school in TX. I taught 8th grade for the last 2 years at a school that did nothing to support teachers. Just about anything was tolerated there. I can now say I am at a school that will not tolerate behavior such as took place in GA.

For the most part the children represent opinions and actions that they see displayed by the adults in their lives. When aggression and verbal abuse is used by these role models, it must be the proper response to daily situations so the kids will do the same. When teachers, and administrations do nothing to dissuade this behavior it escalates into regretful episodes of violence.

Course that’s just an opinion of mine, and I have been tainted by 22 years of military service before I began a teaching career.


Bill

I think there are a few different things going on here. I don't think these kids were planning on following through with their plan. In fact, I think their plan WAS to get caught. These kids obviously felt mistreated by this teacher and felt like they had no voice.

Their plan worked perfectly. Today the whole world is talking about them. And perhaps the school committee and local community may have a closer look at this teacher to see if in fact she has crossed some line with these kids.

I don't think there is any doubt that tv and video games have a lot to do with numbing our kids to violence. I don't have the exact numbers but I know that most American kids have witnessed thousands of murders by the time they reach the age of about six or seven.

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Originally Posted by Jenn

I don't think there is any doubt that tv and video games have a lot to do with numbing our kids to violence. I don't have the exact numbers but I know that most American kids have witnessed thousands of murders by the time they reach the age of about six or seven.

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I don't understand why video games get so much BS and movies get almost none? I mean in SAW they have people being tortured and people ribcages getting split open.

Also comparing real murder to video games is not even a comparison. And anybody who isn't already mentally ill can tell the difference between reality and not.

The difference between kids witnessing murder on TV, and in a video game, is that the murder is only witnessed on TV, whereas in a viedo game the kid acually participates in the murder.

And if witnessing violence on TV does not translate into actual real world violence, then wouldn't that apply to nudity and sex also. Why are these things banned from TV while violence is not?

Look at European programming. There is nudity all over there. I don't know about you but I havn't heard of any crazy rape statistics from over there. Video games get too much of a rap, while movies can show people be turned into piles of meat by bullets. Real life visuals are much more powerful than some animated guy.

I understand your point Jeff. Which is why I find it so frustrating that while some parents would never bring their child to see a movie like "Saw", they wouldn't think twice about sitting them down with a violent video game.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

This happened in my state, and according to what I heard on the local news, the prosecuter is planning to file charges against the three oldest in juvenile court as "unruly children", since that's the only charge he can legally bring against them. While the children didn't intend to kill the teacher, the nine year old girl that organized this wanted the teacher to be tortured.

Here's the Atlanta Journal-Constitution story about it:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met...ge_tab_newstab

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Why can't the arrest the parents? They should.

Video games and movies are not the problem. It's stupid people having kids. Until stupid people stop having kids, there will always be stupid children.

I'm disgusted when I see people walk into a theater like that with a 3 or 4 year old. They don't need to see that stuff at that age. There is also an age restriction on movies and video games. Parents bypass the video game one and the movie one frequently, by buying or taking them to the movies. But then when a kid shoots up a school, its gotta be because he was playing Grand Theft Auto earlier that day.

Parents are much more to blame than the video game industry. I don't think 5 or 6 year olds should be playing gory games, but i also think that they are not the root of all evil.

Hell if video game murders are real, then lock me up cause I have killed over a few 100,000 people, but I am still a normal person.

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Originally Posted by bender29

Wow, that's nuts.Out of curiousity, is this school located in a bad area of GA?

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The School is in Waycross,

Waycross is small rural town in south GA, not a big city, just a small town.

I have been there before it’s small and basically pretty country.

Not something I would have expect to happen there but than again those days whether you live is a city or out in the country I think it does not matter anymore!

Note: As far as putting the blame on TV, or video games I think that is the easy way out, I grew up playing violent video games watching violent movies and I am not a psycho (except in my avatar :rofl:), the key here, parenting and have a well adjusted familly!

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Originally Posted by Brimstone111888

I'm disgusted when I see people walk into a theater like that with a 3 or 4 year old. They don't need to see that stuff at that age. There is also an age restriction on movies and video games. Parents bypass the video game one and the movie one frequently, by buying or taking them to the movies. But then when a kid shoots up a school, its gotta be because he was playing Grand Theft Auto earlier that day.

Parents are much more to blame than the video game industry. I don't think 5 or 6 year olds should be playing gory games, but i also think that they are not the root of all evil.

Hell if video game murders are real, then lock me up cause I have killed over a few 100,000 people, but I am still a normal person.

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Exactly. Parents that blame their kid's problems on movies and games are morons, and should have their kids taken away.

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Originally Posted by Skoalbasher

Why can't the arrest the parents? They should.

Video games and movies are not the problem. It's stupid people having kids. Until stupid people stop having kids, there will always be stupid children.

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Some really good points coming out in this one. I happen to agree with the it’s not the gun that kills people philosophy. Or it’s not the movie, or it’s not the video game. I do believe it’s the lazy parent who doesn’t have the time to teach their kid respect, manners, and a sense of right from wrong. Proper behavior, how to address adults in a polite respectful manner. I think a lot of the parents today are too busy with their own life they neglect passing these lessons to their offspring.

Parenting isn't easy, it is something that makes you have to deal with things you'd really rather not deal with sometimes, it interrupts your love life, sleep becomes optional, worry becomes as normal a day to day experience as brushing your teeth is, it makes your clothing choices drop for a time to "will puke show on this color". In other words, it's the best thing I've ever done. :)

I'd love the luxury of blaming the school, tv, video games, their friends, society, the latest pop star and on and on but the fact is in the end....the greatest influence in their lives are the adults that raise them. It's nice to think you can blame someone else (our society loves to do so) but in the end, you look in the mirror and you have to know it's up to you to set down the best guidelines and role model you can for them. It doesn't always work but that doesn't give those of us that chose to be parents any right to excuse ourselves from trying.

I believe three things as a parent....

1) that I am trying to raise children that will become people I would be proud to call my friend, not just my child

2) that my kids will have tons of friends.....they have only one mom so I need to be mom now, and friend later

3) that society should not be stuck dealing with my unruly children, then adults, just because I couldn't be bothered to be a decent parent.

Pretty much everything else above that is gravy. :)

Joanna... I so very much wish that everyone had the same view.

I have a similar view to parenting...at least I did when I still had a say in how my daughter was raised. :D And I cannot stand seeing all these 'modern' parents who are too lazy or uncaring to teach their children about proper behavior, rules, respect or manners!

The video games(which are a touchy subject in this house now that my BF has his degree in Game Art and Design), movies, TV shows, and web page content are out there for responsible older teens and adults to view and the people who make them intend for parents to keep their children away until they are mature enough. But, of course, a large number of parents don't do this and so those things get the blame for parents negligence.

I am sad to say I am not surprised.
If you look at the leadership at the school and the home it will tell you A LOT.

From 1st hand experience I have seen the principal claim that an elementary student is "not capable of being mean on purpose". These attacks of bullying etc are all just misunderstandings on the part of the victim...

The parents are clueless because the kids do not rush home to tell them that the principal was called upon to talk to them again this week and the principal and teacher do not call the parents either. When the 'victims' parent calls the other parent to ask what a good solution might be the reply is that their child "attends Sunday school" so they will pray about it.

...Some kids NEED rules and consequences...Okay. all done now.:weirdface

Joe, again though that's blaming the school. Either Mike or I are at young Michael's school every single day, twice a day. I volunteer at that school as I did with the older kid's when they were in elementary school. Even as they got older, I made it a practise to drop by the school to make myself known to the teachers other than twice a year for parent conferences. If there was trouble I left work or their father did and went there and dealt with it.

Excuses don't cut it with me. It's not the school's kid, it's not society's kid...it's your kid. It's not the fault of some video game which as a parent you should bloody well have a say over! It's not who they hang out with. Those are just parts of their lives and part of the bigger picture but not excuses.

If people can't make the effort to be involved, even when it's completely and utterly inconvenient, why in the world did they have kids? I may be way out of line but at some point somebody must have missed telling me that having children was going to be an easy experience and if it was tough, here's the list of who to blame.

i read in an issue of time magazine around 99-2001, i forgot what year. there were 2 kids. 1 was 11 and the other was 13 i think. they shot and killed many of their classmates and 1 teacher... so things like that have been happening a long time ago..

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Originally Posted by munding

i read in an issue of time magazine around 99-2001, i forgot what year. there were 2 kids. 1 was 11 and the other was 13 i think. they shot and killed many of their classmates and 1 teacher... so things like that have been happening a long time ago..

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So my question would be how does an 11 year old have access to guns? Where is the parent that can't see their child is that troubled? Sorry but 11 year old's don't just randomly go off, legally buy a gun and kill folks. Some adult, somewhere along the way missed a whole lot of red flags is my thought.

they stole the 13 yr old's dad's hunting gun, some pistols, and lots of bullets. they drove the car up a hill where they parked the car. then the 11 year old went down the school and pulled the fire alarm then ran back up the hill where the other kid was waiting. when people were coming out cos they thought there was a fire drill.. the 2 kids started shooting.

This basicly all stems from the fact that this country as a whole as lost it's core values.This country was founded and became the great nation it once was on the idea that Everyone is responsiable for their own actions.over the last 30 years we have seen this basic concept slowly change into I don't have to take responsiablity for anything I can blame it on somone or somthing else. No matter what one does now they don't have to own upto it. They can say society caused them to do it, video games caused them to do it, the excuses are too many to list but we seem to find a limitless amount of them to avoid facing the reality that everyone is responsiable for their own actions.You wonder why kids act the way they do it's because they are not held accountable for their actions they see their parents blame almost everything but themselves for what ever misforturne effects them. Basicly it's time for parents to show their kids by example that they must face the consequnce's of their actions. If it means taking the child that stole the candy back to the store and making them hand it back and saying they took it, that might what be what it takes. If you have to basicly point out to your teenagers that when they break curfew that they only have to choices for their actions, one They are to stupid to tell time and shouldn't be out alone as they are a danger to themselves and others or the fact that they are willfully disobedieant and chose to break curfew and must now face the consequneces of their actions. It's time to hold ourselves and our children to the reality that what we do today is what we will have to answer for tommorrow. Parenting is the most demanding hardest thing anyone can ever do, if you arn't willing to put yourslef out as a rolemodel to spend endless hours involved in your child's life to worry about them from the moment they are put in your arms till the day your are put in the ground,you may want to revalute whether or not you should be parent. Children are not societies problem they are their parents responsiblity.I know it sounds trite but with childern you really do reap what you so, The kids arn't the ones we should hold responsiable it's thier parnet's that are to blame.

I read that last week, and I think there was a major flaw in their well thought out plan; the initial knocking out of the teacher. If a 9 year old hit me in the head with a paper weight it would be on. :rolleye2:

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Originally Posted by Pintado

Some really good points coming out in this one. I happen to agree with the it’s not the gun that kills people philosophy. Or it’s not the movie, or it’s not the video game. I do believe it’s the lazy parent who doesn’t have the time to teach their kid respect, manners, and a sense of right from wrong. Proper behavior, how to address adults in a polite respectful manner. I think a lot of the parents today are too busy with their own life they neglect passing these lessons to their offspring.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Parenting isn't easy, it is something that makes you have to deal with things you'd really rather not deal with sometimes, it interrupts your love life, sleep becomes optional, worry becomes as normal a day to day experience as brushing your teeth is, it makes your clothing choices drop for a time to "will puke show on this color". In other words, it's the best thing I've ever done. :)

I'd love the luxury of blaming the school, tv, video games, their friends, society, the latest pop star and on and on but the fact is in the end....the greatest influence in their lives are the adults that raise them. It's nice to think you can blame someone else (our society loves to do so) but in the end, you look in the mirror and you have to know it's up to you to set down the best guidelines and role model you can for them. It doesn't always work but that doesn't give those of us that chose to be parents any right to excuse ourselves from trying.

I believe three things as a parent....

1) that I am trying to raise children that will become people I would be proud to call my friend, not just my child

2) that my kids will have tons of friends.....they have only one mom so I need to be mom now, and friend later

3) that society should not be stuck dealing with my unruly children, then adults, just because I couldn't be bothered to be a decent parent.

Pretty much everything else above that is gravy. :)

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These are right on the mark, as a good start. :gj:

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Originally Posted by munding

they stole the 13 yr old's dad's hunting gun, some pistols, and lots of bullets. they drove the car up a hill where they parked the car. then the 11 year old went down the school and pulled the fire alarm then ran back up the hill where the other kid was waiting. when people were coming out cos they thought there was a fire drill.. the 2 kids started shooting.

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Jonesboro, Arkansas is where that happened. I lived 45 minutes away from that school when I lived in Arkansas...

You know the sad thing is that these kids become labled for this even though it was one stupid mistake. I live in Saint Louis and nowadays I've noticed kids in the public schools have been labled and shipped to different schools full of their "kind" taking Roosevelt High School for instance I drove by there twice a day for a week and there was a fight occuring at least once a day on the school's property. It's been shown on the news that over the last few years they have had a few full "lockdowns" of the school with students inside and the police have swept the entire school for drugs. and most of these kids there started out in elementary schools where they were labled a bad kid.