Quote:
Originally posted by ZTAngel
I agree.
I know that kids will be kids and they sometimes do this kind of stuff but these drawings are pretty graphic. It's all over the news here in Orlando (Ocala is only a few miles away) so I heard about this a few days ago. This kid had been getting bullied, picked on, and threatened for a while by these boys.
I think we've all drawn pictures of classmates when we were younger. I know I drew some mean pictures of some of mine (but that's because I was snotty  ). BUT.... I never drew a picture that showed me stabbing my classmate and blood pouring out of them. I never drew pictures that depicted me killing or harming a student. I think the meanest thing I did when it came to cartoon classmates was drawing a picture of the smelly kid (every elementary school classroom has one) killing everyone else in the class from his stench. The teacher made me sit in the corner for that one. hmpf.
I don't think the authorities arrested these kids to punish them and make them do jail time. I think the main reason was to curtail any violent tendencies before it got out of hand. These kids have bullied this boy before and have made threats. Their pictures are pretty brutal. What happens when these kids are 15 years old? Will it stay just a cartoon drawing? We don't know and I don't think the authorities wanted to take that chance. The point was to let these kids know now, when they're young, that this is unacceptable.
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What happens when they're 15? Let's examine:
-since this form of 'prevention' (the 'scared straight' theory) has been shown to be largely ineffective, by the time they're 15 whatever 'tendencies' they exhibit (which I'm not convinced they've exhibited any) have not been dealt with
-since the children have already had a run-in with police officers that resulted in little more than 'scare tactics' from the shields, the children will have a tendency to associate that experience with police (and thus lose a sense of consequences from police).
-other children (AND THEIR PARENTS, more importantly) who have witnessed the events here will be more apt to rely on the police, rather than the outlets designed especially for this purpose. This is an undue strain on the police, takes them away from actual issues, and also may have 'weakening' effects on the actual teacher/principal/staff/counselor resources that should be handling cases like this (at least up until the point it gets out of hand).
For me, the bottom line is that harsh consequences just don't prevent violent acts - this has been proven time and again. Why subject a 9 year old to handcuffing and police intervention? Are we that weak with regard to schools, parents, and psychological counseling?
I see where ZTAngel and Dionysis are coming from, but I think we're lowing the bar to an absurd level here. Even if we're not, this is a completely inappropriate way to 'solve' or address the problem, at least from a science standpoint.
It's a tough situation - there seems to be some 'building' of these types of problems, in that they get more numerous and severe as time progresses. I think it's a spiral effect, where the worse we handle the situations, the more they occur. I think this is just an unintelligent, uninformed decision on the part of the school and parents.