Klarinet Archive - Posting 000047.txt from 2002/07

From: "Kevin Callahan" <kionon@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Music vs. drug testing
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2002 19:04:20 -0400

> >I often wanted exactly that, but I also understood that the school
couldn't
> >and shouldn't do everything in its power to make that so. There are a lot
of
> >things FHS could have done to its students to make it safer, but I'd
argue
> >that the learning ENVIROMENT would be altered for the worse.
>
> I disagree. If the school environment is not safe, that is a MONUMENTAL
> problem. If the environment is otherwise distracting students from
> learning and teachers from teaching, that is still very bad. Schools MUST
> provide safe and appropriate learning environments, or else the are just
> wasting their time and the taxpayers' money.

Tell me how you can feel safe and secure in building that you can not leave,
you can not move freely around in, and are under constant suspicion for
"something." That hardly encourages you to want to learn. I certainly don't
consider it a healthy enviroment. Teachers cannot always be friends, but
they should never be enemies. Indeed, even the administration should never
be considered enemies. I never want students scared of me. I'm sad to report
there were times in high school where I was scared of my administration,
mostly in the reactions to Columbine that I mentioned earlier. Granted, it
got better after a time, but not being able to trust those responsible for
your education is not a nice feeling, especially when you have no legal
standing.

These feelings of fright can also distract students from learning and
teachers from getting through to already hard to reach students. Schools
must provide an enviroment where the student feels safe and what they
consider at the very least an acceptable learning enviroment, or else that
time and money you mention will still be wasted.

> > > "Team" punishment
> > > has always annoyed me, too, but if nobody is willing to finger they
guilty
> > > party...
> >
> >Most of the time, I didn't know, and there were times when I was the
guilty
> >party, took the responsibility, and others still suffered for my acts. Th
at
> >really angered me.
>
> That would get MY goat, too.

And rightly so. Though to sum up my entire take on this issue, the only
thing worse is that of seeing innocents suffer for what someone else did,
whether that someone else comes forward or not, and I do consider this
making innocents suffer.

> > > The only "right" I want to see taken away is the "right" of criminals
to
> > > break the law and get away with it.
> >
> >Eloquently put, but impossible to achieve. There will always be crime,
and
> >there will always be those who can get away with it.
>
> You still have to try. Our reach should exceed our grasp.

Yes, but not by cutting into civil liberties, that makes us no better than
those we wish to, rightly, catch.

Kevin Callahan

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