What Is Going on in Our Schools?

What is going on in our schools right now? I’m one to back teachers’ unions for various reasons, not least that these people don’t work a full year; they have the entire summer off. They’re die-hard Democratic Party supporters and are directly responsible for the lagging math and reading scores post-pandemic since they dithered on re-opening schools, even colluding with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in keeping these institutions closed. This action erased educational progress, with test scores dropping to their worst in 20 years. This gap will not be closed due to the political climate and inherent rot with unions. 

There’s a lot to criticize, but teaching isn’t going away. There may be stronger pushes for school choice and parents opting to home-school their children, but this profession isn’t going away. The initial question stems from an old video that seemed to be a harbinger of the horrors to come and a recent beatdown of an educator captured on film.

The first video could be a parody, though it’s reportedly years old; some commented that this was a 2017 incident. The video is a student going ballistic on a teacher who probably slightly disciplined him by ordering him to his seat to start the class. It leads to pervasive verbal abuse, with the student dropping the n-word. His peers look on, some of them laughing. I don’t know if this was a prank—it doesn’t seem that way. But this behavior is wholly unacceptable. 

a student loses his mind and yells at a teacher… pic.twitter.com/4EdzhWRHGo

— DAILY School Fights 🥊 (@SchoolFights4U) February 25, 2023

The most recent video emanates from Florida, where a student beat a teacher unconscious for confiscating his Nintendo Switch (via The Blaze):

A massive student brutalized a teacher's aide Tuesday in an unprovoked attack at Matanzas High School in Palm Coast, Florida, leaving the woman unconscious and severely injured. His apparent reason for jeopardizing the woman's life: She had prevented him from playing video games in class. 

According to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office, FCSO School Resource Deputies at the school were alerted to the brutal assault on a paraprofessional by a 6'6", 270-pound student. 

The student told deputies that he was upset that the victim had taken his Nintendo Switch away from him during class. WTLV-TV reported that the student also told officials that he would "beat her up" any time she tried to take his game.

The paraprofessional's attempt to spare the 17-year-old from the mindless distraction and to help facilitate his education evidently proved unbearable for the student, who can be seen in surveillance footage barreling toward the victim and knocking her from her feet. 

These incidents could make the argument for why teachers deserve a pay raise—just rewatch the videos. Then again, I would file that debate under maybe: maybe they deserve that raise. Teachers do put up with a lot in the classroom as of late, but I’d rather re-instill discipline before we get into the value of a teacher and his/her compensation. Students stomping on teachers should never be tolerated or considered an option. What kind of culture is being developed in the halls is just as disturbing as the fraudulent academic agendas, like critical race theory, being pushed endlessly.