MyFox
 

fdtappan's Blog

by fdtappan from Eureka TrueVine Baptist Church

Last Post 1 day, 12 hours Ago


Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools
May 29, 2008 | 9:46 PM
Category: News
Report This Post

Recent events have again focused the nation’s attention on violence in U.S. public schools, an issue that has generated public concern and directed research for more than two decades. Despite long-standing attention to the problem, there is a growing perception that not all public schools are safe places of learning, and media reports highlight specific school-based violent acts.

The seventh goal of the National Education Goals states that by the year 2010, “all schools in America will be free of drugs and violence and the unauthorized presence of firearms and alcohol, and offer a disciplined environment that is conducive to learning.”

In response to this goal, the Congress passed the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994, which provides for support of drug and violence prevention programs. As part of this legislation, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is required to collect data to determine the “frequency, seriousness, and incidence of violence in elementary and secondary schools.”

NCES responded to this requirement by commissioning a survey, the Principal/School Disciplinarian Survey on School Violence, the results of which are detailed in this report.


· Fifty-seven percent of public elementary and secondary school
principals reported that one or more incidents of crime/violence
were reported to the police or other law enforcement officials had
occurred in their school.

· Ten percent of all public schools experienced one or more serious
violent crimes (defined as murder, rape or other type of sexual battery,
suicide, physical attack or fight with a weapon, or robbery) that were
reported to police or other law enforcement officials.

· Physical attacks or fights without a weapon led the list of reported
crimes in public schools with about 190,000 such incidents reported.
About 116,000 incidents of theft or larceny were reported along with
98,000 incidents of vandalism. These less serious or nonviolent
crimes were more common than serious violent crimes, with schools
reporting about 4,000 incidents of rape or other type of sexual battery,
7,000 robberies, and 11,000 incidents of physical attacks or fights in
which weapons were used.

· While 43 percent of public schools reported no incidents of crime,
37 percent reported from one to five crimes and about 20
percent reported six crimes or more.

Memphis City Schools is typical of many inner-city school systems. We are not experiencing problems on an island; we are simply one of many that are failing, flailing and floundering in their attempt to safely educate our children. Hiring a new superintendent will not solve all of our problems. I believe we need to take a good look at new, as well as some past behavioral modalities and modify them to our specific situation and employ the resulting paradigm into our system. It is well documented that what we and other large inner-city school systems are currently doing is clearly not working. Let me know what you think we can do to solve some of the disciplinary and administrative problems we have in our school system.

9 Comments |  Add a Comment

Member Comments Total Comments: 9
Page 1 of 1
bubbah read my blog
May 29, 2008 | 10:19 PM

BULLCRAP on those stats.
Sorry, but it is. I've been other places with my kids and this is not so. It may be true of "at risk" schools.
The more you try to shove it under the rug the more it stinks.
You can't make Memphis look better by trying to make others look bad.That cry of "other's pooh stinks too" rings hollow.
You are right about the Super not solving all ills though. Forget the past and move forward with new things. The past got us here. The future will get us to tomorrow, not yesterday.
Good post.
fdtappan read my blog
May 30, 2008 | 5:23 AM

bubbah the intent of the blog is not to absolve MCS, but to show that there is a fundamental, nationwide problem with the way we educate our children in the inner-city. These federal government statistics speak volumes in relation to the need for a complete overhaul of the nation's education system. You can't educate without discipline.
bubbah read my blog
May 30, 2008 | 7:46 PM

We need to concern ourselves with Memphis City Schools and no other schools till we get JUST ONE right. Then we can speak about the nations problem when we have ONE succes to base our frame of reference on. We don't have that, here, now, and here and now.
You are right that you can't educate without discipline and the responsibility for disciplining kids in Memphis has DE-volved into a spitting contest from the teachers to the board to the parents, all of which are acting like the children that all the lawyers, who will be raking it in from the lawsuites, could ever hope for IN MEMPHIS.
A pathetic baiting exercize IN MEMPHIS.
In Memphis, there needs to be discipline by the parent, in the absence of that it falls to the teacher without the need for complaint from either, absent that, it falls to the community and the penalties should be severe at that point not to encumber, but, to train or retrain.
TRAINING TRAINING TRAINING!
That is what's missing and the teachers don't seem to have it either. It's missing and it needs to be put in:
TO EMPOWER THE PEOPLE TO BE FREE AND FREE TO BE INTELLIGENT AND ACT ACCORDINGLY WHICH WILL GENERATE COMMUNITY HARMONY, PROSPERITY IN THE FACE OF NONAGREMENT, AND TO APPRECIATE DIVERSITY IN THE POOR AREAS THAT WILL NO LONGER EXIST AS POOR AREAS BY CHOICE INSTEAD OF BY BULLDOZER OR OBSOLESCENCE.
TO GENERATE A PEOPLE THAT ACTIVELY CHOOSE LIFE AND CREATE A LIFE THEY WILL LOVE OF THEIR OWN DESIGN THAT ANYONE WOULD APPRECIATE.

Cap Key got stuck. Hahaha.
Man, I wish everybody would wake up or I would wake up from this nightmare call
fdtappan read my blog
May 30, 2008 | 8:29 PM

bubbah that was well said and passsionately argued. I wholeheartedly agree.
irishoaks read my blog view my photos
Jun 1, 2008 | 4:58 PM

Did you see the article in the CA today (SU)? Memphis is in so much morass about the whole system. Willie Herenton has totally polluted this town and school system that no honest and able person wants to have anything to do with the town or schools. The man has no honor or he would have bowed out a long time ago. He has the temeitry to call the candidates "third rate" to leave all with the full intent that he is the only salvation for the system. The entire crime rates, bribery, cronyism, sex out of control, examples like Ophelia Ford and Janis Fullilove, all the Fords, and Ricky Peete, the MCS, MLG&W, ad nauseum lay at the big feet of Willie Herenton. One certainly can count the decline when he came on board at MCS.
Esoloist
Jun 3, 2008 | 8:59 PM

Mempohis City Schools are in bad condition for educating and learning because our homes are in bad condition and devoid of discipline.The teachers for the most part are afraid of our children and rightly so.The parents either don't care ENOUGH or are afraid as well.We never should have taken corporal punishment out of the schools.I certainly don't condone abuse of any child for any reason,but certainly a little old fashioned paddling sure won't kill them,it didn't kill me and didn't kill my four adult children.We as adults have got to gain back and keep control of our youth.They are headed for a long road of death and destruction and it's our(adults)fault!!!!!!!!
Esoloist
irishoaks read my blog view my photos
Jun 4, 2008 | 10:33 PM

Yes, ma'am and very well said!!!. Whichever comic it was said we needed his grandmother to do drive-by whoopings. I think the two of us would do well.
bubbah read my blog
Jun 5, 2008 | 11:02 AM

Well, FD, if Memphis is near one of the first to fall so far then qwe owe it to the nation to be the light that shows the way out too!
Let's go down there and argue the case.
I'm willing.
The training I spoke of exists and can be taught to kids from 8 years old on up to 100 years old.
bubbah read my blog
Jun 5, 2008 | 2:34 PM

My problem with MCS is that they often state how typical the are. FOR $900 MILLION, WHO SAYS THEY SHOULD BE AIMING AT TYPICAL, THEY BETTER BE LOOKING FOR STATE OF THE ART AND ADVANCED PROGRAMS FOR LEADERSHIP EVEN IN THE POOR NEIGHBORHOODS.
If a kid grows up with everything, he doesn't need to invemnt anything, he can just pay someone to handle it.
If a kid grows up in a poor neighborhood, he sees a lot that could use some creative thinking solutions. MCS has robbed those poor kids of that by removing playgrounds and never putting them back, not putting up fences to keep them safe, and not giving the latest or the most effective leadership training in lieu of politically correct positioning and looking good proposals that end up as more hot air and zero delivery.
Page 1 of 1


Write your comment below:




fdtappan

I am the Senior Pastor of the Eureka TrueVine Baptist Church. In my ten year tenure, the church has grown from 10 to approximately 300. My personal mantra is to,”Meet the needs of the people, right where they are”. The Church Motto is “Real Ministry, with a Real Message, for Real People”. Family, social service and youth ministries are the foundational ministries of the church. I completed my undergraduate work in Psychology from Christian Brothers University and Jacksonville Theological Seminary and my graduate work from Jacksonville Theological Seminary in Theology and the Harvard University, School of Divinity. I was the first Director of Academic and Vocational Training for The Memphis Job Corps Center, and held the position of Facility Manager and instructor with Memphis City Schools Adult Basic Education Program at Tri-State Training Center and with the Title-One Program at Tall Trees Juvenile Detention Center. I served as the Chaplain of the Shelby County Detention Center and also at the Jail East “Women’s Jail”. Along with my pastoral duties, I am currently an administrator with the Shelby County Department of Corrections with the Fatherhood/Healthy Relationships Program. My wife of 19 years, Regina and I have 2 children, Frederick 13 and Alexis 11. Together we head the Memphis Area Youth Association, which is a youth athletic and educational support program with an abstinence base.

Member Since: 6/20/2007


 

RSS: XMLWhat is RSS?