Posted on 05/04/2012 7:13:05 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
About all that is certain regarding the bizarre situation with fifth-graders in Junction is that when the teacher tells you to hush, responding with meows isn't the brightest idea.
And maybe forcing the entire fifth-grade class to crawl down the school's track, meowing as they went along, wasn't a well-thought-out disciplinary response.
Junction, a quiet town of 2,700 about 120 miles west of San Antonio, is best known for its beautiful rivers and its annual ranch rodeo. But in the wake of the Wednesday showdown at the elementary school, it's getting a different sort of attention.
Upset Junction parents are venting on Facebook, the city police have opened an investigation and the school administration is in full emergency mode, taking complaints from parents and calls from out-of-town reporters.
And the Texas Rangers are being called in to sort it all out.
“There's really nothing I can tell you at this point except that we are doing a full investigation,” Superintendent Renee Schulze said.
Some parents, however, are very willing to talk.
“Our kids came home with scraped knees and hands. It was 90-something degrees and the track was hot, with a lot of rocks,” said Marybel Anguiano, whose son Francisco was involved and didn't go to school Thursday.
Another mother, Liz Molina, said her fifth-grade daughter, Alicia, won't be going back to school for the rest of the year.
“She's upset. She can't trust the teachers. I understand the teachers made a poor decision, but our kids trusted them,” she said.
Molina said she is also withdrawing her other three children from the public school district and will home-school them for the remainder of the school year.
“We're a pretty close-knit family and they're taking this very personally. I'm afraid they'll go to school and lash out,” she said.
According to the account given to Molina by her daughter and confirmed by other sources, some of the fifth-graders were being loud and rowdy in the halls Wednesday. In response to warnings from their teachers, some of the students responded by meowing, she said.
Molina said she understands four teachers and about 50 kids were involved. But what began as a plan to have the kids run a few laps on the school track to straighten them out apparently escalated into compulsory crawling and meowing, she said.
“They want to act like cats, they should be treated like cats, and meow,” was a remark she said her daughter attributed to one teacher. Afterward, she said, some kids visited the school nurse.
Lisa Carlile whose daughter Sierra aggravated a back problem by crawling, believes the teachers used bad judgment in punishing so many kids when only a few had been disrespectful.
“It's affecting everyone's lives, the teachers, the kids and the parents. I feel bad for them, because of whatever consequences it could lead to, but they shouldn't have done it,” she said of the teachers.
Junction Police Sgt. Edward House declined to comment beyond confirming police are looking into the matter. Attempts to contact the four teachers allegedly involved were not successful.
Molina, who visited with the superintendent Thursday morning, said Schulze appears to be taking the situation seriously.
“She's not defending the teachers. She said she was very sorry and she wasn't going to rest until it was completely taken care of,” Molina said.
/s
sounds like something I would make my kids do if they started acting like that..
I see no problem here.
I’m torn on this...
On the one hand, I want to tell the kids and parents to suck it up and get over it...and raise your kids to respect your elders.
Then, there’s the anti-authoritarian side of me that wants to tell the kids to do what my cat does sometimes...go sh!t in a corner.
I’ve been to Junction numerous times.
I’m surprised the residents didn’t go the school, horsewhip every teacher involved and then drive them like cattle back to South Austin where they belong.
“I’m glad to see the Texas Rangers are investigating.”
/s
Believe it or not, Texas Rangers are the one group of law enforcement in Texas you do not want to f-— with. They operate in a quasi-legal mode and often get “results” when others don’t.
I was surprised to learn that there are only 144 of them in the entire huge state of Texas.
“As of 2010, the Texas Rangers number 144 commissioned officers, one forensic artist, one fiscal analyst and 24 civilian support personnel”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Ranger_Division#Organization
There's a famous story about one of them breaking up a huge melee, that lead to the famous line, “one riot, one ranger.”
They also had quite a statistic about the number of bad guys they brought back dead.
Can’t damage the little darlings’ precious self esteem. Fifth grade is a little late in the game for the brats to learn a little civilized respect for authority.
I’m surprised the kids went along with it. They should have just said No.
Just because an adult tells you to do something stupid doesn’t mean you should do it.
How can that be? My FIL is an avid fan of Walker, Texas Ranger, and I usually catch a few minutes of the show when I break for lunch. Whenever Walker and his rangers get into it with the bad guys, instead of drawing their weapons they start kicking them in the head.
Kind of reminds me of the time in basic training when another guy and I got bored of counting cadence as we marched back from chow - so he counted in Chinese and and I counted in Spanish. The squad leader thought it was disrespectful and we ended up spending an hour marching around the drill pad counting in Chinese and Spanish....
So kids who were NOT acting up were injured and humiliated, and you’re fine with that?
Depends. If the teacher didn't know the culprit, asked the class who did it, and the class clammed up, then yes, they are accomplices and deserve exactly the same punishment.
I got whacked in the back of my head by my DI's helmet liner.........
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