Thursday, February 28, 2013

Was the APS wrestler a practicing bully?

Let me begin by stating that I have no more information about the specifics in this case than anyone who reads the paper and watches the news.  That said, I taught in APS schools for a quarter of a century.  I watched the bullying and the administrative failure to deal with it.  I will bow to any controverting evidence; but in the absence of that evidence, I am comfortable in my insistence; if it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck ...

in all likelihood, what we have here is a practicing bully.

A practicing bully enjoying the administrative permission of his prohibited behavior.  A recent audit of the APS by the Council of the Great City Schools (2007) found administrators;

routinely falsifying crime statistics at their schools, in order to protect their school's public perception.
And, to bring a state championship to their school?  School board members and administrators have a self interest in not reporting, or in under-reporting, incidents of bullying and criminal misconduct in schools.

One hopes there will be an investigation into the circumstances that resulted in a student (allegedly) committing a strong arm robbery at school one day, and then representing his school in a state wrestling tournament the next.

One hopes the investigation will determine whether the young man was just having an extraordinarily bad day or if instead, he was/is a practicing bully.  If there is a record of relentless bullying (criminal misconduct), why is the student on the wrestling team in the first place?

Is it just about state championships, or is it about growing student athletes into adults who embrace character and courage and honor?

If the information that APS shares is candid, forthright and honest, and if the young man is a practicing bully, we will find no record of his relentless criminal misconduct; APS will not have kept a record, link

The leadership of the APS is hiding the truth about bullying in particular and about student discipline problems in general.  The truth is not available, not even on APS' award winning website.

Two possibilities explain the absence of a record;
  1. incompetence - they can't figure out how to do it, or 
  2. corruption - they're not keeping a record in order to hide their inability to enforce district discipline policies.
If ever there were an opportunity for an investigative reporter to dig deeper, if ever their were an obligation for an investigative reporter to dig deeper, and then report the truth about student discipline and bullying in the APS this is it.

Hold the establishment media accountable.
Don't let them sweep this under rug.

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