Elizabeth Anne Moore, a reading teacher at a west Phoenix high school, has a new ending and a new title for the 350-page book she has written about being an educator. She'll call it, "Violated No More."This week, Ms. Moore won a court injunction against a 15-year-old student who had been harassing her in class - including, by her account, telling her daily to "go [expletive] myself."
The student's father, Reyes Cavazos, said that his son missed the hearing because he wasn't where he was supposed to be to get a ride to court. He ascribed his son's misbehavior to growing pains, but said he deserved whatever punishment that the court ordered."He's a growing child," Cavazos said. "He's going through the typical teenage years. You know, he has good days and bad days."
Mr. Cavazos, with all due respect, what are the consequences YOU are going to impose on your son for his verbal violence and disruptiveness in class? In addition to the misery he has put Ms. Moore through, he is preventing the other children in the class from benefitting from the class.
How To Raise a Thug is an essay by Kimberley Jane Wilson.
Thugs are not born. The young men who are terrorizing our communities today didn't come from a void. They were raised in our homes and in our streets. I've yet to meet a person who said they wanted to raise a thug, but, unless a boy has parents who are willing to raise him with love, dedication and sacrifice, it's just so pitifully easy to create one.
Oh, and now there is somebody whose job it is to put a veneer of civility on thugs for the media:
The rapper DMX is a self-described "hood and a fiend." Put him in front of an interviewer, and things can go awry. Sarcastic responses, foul language or, worse, details about the stabbings and shootings he's been connected with over the years. Sometimes, even the hardest man in hip-hop needs a little polishing around the edges. That's where Angelo Ellerbee comes in.
Comments