Experts claim that the minimum population requirement for a town is 300 people. The school I worked in had as many as 2000 kids every day. My point being that schools can have many of the same issues on a daily basis that one would expect to find in a town that size. School administrators can be overwhelmed with daily crisis and thus can become desensitized to the magnitude of a teacher's concern. This kid probably had a daily track record of misbehavior. I wouldn't doubt that this kid was in special ed and had an IEP, and the law requires that student have to be educated in the least restrictive environment. Besides many school systems are reluctant to place behavior problems in alternate programs because it's expensive and when they do, they end up putting all of their behavior problems in one basket. Those programs can be hellish to work in. The child in question had bigger problems than the school recognized, and the parents were clueless enablers who probably balked at getting outside help for their child. I walked the halls that were full of kids that I knew were going to bounce off every bumper in the pinball game of life. You see a lot of train wrecks in the making, but school systems are not fond of teachers who tell parents that their kid is most likely headed to a jail cell or a cemetery plot. It's sad, but if you polled the teachers who worked with that student probably most would admit that they were not surprised. Sadly, the signs were clearly there, but the whole system missed them, and 4 individuals paid the price. School systems that can afford it need to hire mental health workers that are empowered to force parents to seek professional help for their child who is in crises. To a certain degree, parents need to be held accountable for the actions of their children especially if they ignore problem behavior before it gets out of hand. I could give you dozens of examples as to why I feel this way.
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