While reading the news this morning, I came across this very disturbing story about a group of third graders who had plotted to attack their teacher. Surely this couldn’t be true. Now, I didn’t like my third grader teacher either but the worst thing I ever did to her was call her Ms. Burrito behind her back (her name was Ms. Britto). Maybe it was the reading comprehension tests or maybe it was the long division. I don’t know. These kids had a bone to pick with their teacher.
Lately in my house we’ve been discussing children and violence. We saw the head honcho of the Ultimate Fighting Championship on one of the national morning shows praising mixed martial arts and saying that is was fine for young kids to compete in a cage. While I give him credit for comparing the kids in this sport to the kids in Karate or even football, there is just something inherently wrong with watching kids fighting in a cage.
OK, so, humans are violent. I saw the National Geographic special that showed chimps killing other chimps. Apparently it’s natural to kill and and hit things and grunt around angrily. But at the same time, the culture and laws of today say this is not right. You can go to jail for that. The law might even kill you.
The other thing I saw recently on TV was a commercial that showed a mom talking to a chain saw-wielding mutant. She tells him she’s going to have to block him because she doesn’t want the kids to have nightmares. Is there a correlation between kids watching violent things and kids doing violent things. Study after study has proved yes and has proved no. It’s either “Monkey see, monkey do” or “It’s the parent’s responsibility to teach their kids the right way to act.”
I don’t know which is right or wrong. I saw lots of scary movies growing up. And yes, I did have nightmares and I was scared of whatever was lurking under my bed or in my closet. Perhaps had there not been cable at my aunt’s house, I would have been more sheltered and a much better, calmer person (I’m pretty jumpy and scare easily). On the flip side, I know the difference between a movie and real life. Unfortunately, scarier things often happen in real life.
Should kids fight in cages? Maybe these kids are the same kids who get to watch Saw. Heck, I don’t even have kids, so what do I know.
My guess is that these sneaky industrious third graders watched Children of the Corn at a sleepover.
Cops: 3rd-graders aimed to hurt
By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer
WAYCROSS, Ga. - A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.
The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.
“We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely,” Tanner said. “We feel like if they weren’t interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don’t know.”
The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said. A prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.
School officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school, Tanner said.
Police seized a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight from the students, who apparently intended to use them against the teacher, Tanner said.
The rest of the article can be found here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080402/ap_on_re_us/children_s_plot