Unprofessionally Angry

School is Prison?

Pheonix

I'm here with a report/rant that I did for class. Much different from the last rant.

In Chicago, there's a principal who made it against school rules for students to bring their own lunches. In Texas, there are many schools that opted out of PE to do test drills and make the students walk from class to class silently, holding their hands behind their heads. Does that position sound familiar? That's what thieves and murderers have to do when they get arrested. There are striking similarities between school and prison, forced psychological evaluation, lack of freedom and privacy among the student body and those terrible lunches, are but three of many of the signs pointing to one simple fact: school is slowly, but surely, turning into prison.

Apparently, toddlers can be counted as insane if they step out of line a couple times or if they draw a picture someone doesn't like. In Taunton, Massachusetts an anonymous eight-year old boy with special needs was sent home from school for drawing a picture of Jesus on the cross when the class was asked to draw things that reminded them of Christmas. The boy was sent home for the drawing and, "The school, in fact, required the evaluation before the boy could return" (Tuoti). Please remember, this is a special needs boy. They are saying that a boy who is most likely retarded (or might have Downs Syndrome) needs mental help for drawing a picture. Not to mention in Parkway Elementary school in Florida, a young 6-year-old named Haley who was bullied was arrested and sent to several different mental facilities for throwing tantrums in class. "On Tuesday, after another disruption, the girl was put under a law enforcement involuntary Baker Act and taken to a mental health facility. Franklin says the latest events have traumatized her daughter. She is afraid of law enforcement and school" (Hasert). The school administrators have terrified that little girl so badly that she no longer wanted to go to school, as seen by this quote, "The parents also were criminally charged with failing to appear in court near the end of 2009 for a truancy hearing involving Haley not attending school" (Hasert). The parents took Haley and her older sister out of the school.

See, school doesn't allow for much freedom among their students. There may be student council and yearbook committee and tons of other clubs, but do students really get a choice in what they eat and what they can and can't do? "Children, like any other human being, crave freedom" (Gray). They enjoy freedom-no, need freedom-to thrive and be happy. "Every new generation of parents, and every new batch of fresh and eager teachers, hears or reads about some "new theory" or "new findings" from psychology that, at long last, will make schools more fun and improve learning. But none of it has worked. And none of it will until people face the truth: Children hate school because in school they are not free. Joyful learning requires freedom" (Gray). Kids want freedom, but they can't talk without getting in trouble or even take their laptops home without the fear of being spied on. In a school district in Pennsylvania, about three or four years ago, school-issued apple laptops recorded images of students in their homes. Many of these photos, "may have depicted minors and their parents in compromising or embarrassing positions," including in "various stages of dress or undress" (Harriton High School Used Apple Laptop Webcams To Spy On Students At Home). The laptops also took screenshots of the websites they were on. Many students reported the flashing of their laptop cameras on strange intervals, like every hour on the hour, or even as little as a few minutes, but were told that meant their laptop was charging; as one can imagine, this scandalous scheme costs millions in lawsuits. Meanwhile, a teenager in Dallas, Texas was fined over $300 dollars for cursing at a classmate named Lene. Failure to show to court, among other things, raised it to $637. "The complaint said Lene was offended, and that Mullins' language was a breach of the peace" (Dallas Teen Fined $637 for Foul Mouth). The teenager had to take a waitressing job to pay off the debt.

Prisoners get better food than students... Though lately, 'prisoner' and 'student' have been made somewhat synonymous. A school in Chicago, Little Village Academy, has actually banned children to bring their lunches from home, claiming it was the 'healthier' option! "Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices" (Kendall). The children at that school often go hungry due to their unwillingness to eat the strange looking (and probably tasting and smelling) food. Is school food the healthier option? Probably not. In fact, prison food is healthier than school lunches! "Students are missing out on essential vitamins and mineral, being served just half a cup of fruit or vegetables, compared with prisoners' half cup plus one piece of fruit. They are also given less meat - a maximum of two ounces - while inmates get three or four" (Cox). See? Prisoners get fed better than the children of America! No wonder so many children in America are overweight or underweight, and why prisoners always come out of jail so buff and healthy. This explains so many health problems, it's not even funny.

So America's school system is being systematically turned into a prison facility. It's only a matter of time before they have police officers stationed in every hall and electric-wire fences surrounding playgrounds. Sending children to mental hospitals, forcing them to eat slop or starve, spying on them getting dressed! That alone should have gotten every school official in that county who knew fired and arrested for child pornography. School has definitely gone downhill since the creation of USA. Schools are like prisons now, and students are prisoners.

Turtle - Status? Agrees with pheonix.

What bothers me most, is the trust system. At my school, all way's out are blocked and/or locked during school, except the office. And, get this, parents items have to be checked before delivered to thier cells... erm... classrooms. Guess what? NO FREAKING PARENTS ARE GOING TO DELIVER A GUN, DRUGS, OR ANY OTHER STUPID CRAP TO A CHILD! And even if a child wants to kill people, they are going to smuggle it in thier backpack, not have their parents deliver it.

'Wow Turtle, there must have been a shooting or something at your school'

Nope! My school is so uneventful, when someone breaks up it is in the school newspaper (not really, but it feels like it). People are just psychopaths.

We get to go outside for lunch. On fridays. In an isolated courtyard. Protected and monitored by 50 camera's, 20 teachers, 4 swat teams, and the monitors. And, that's only if nobody causes any trouble, so about once a month we get to eat in the courtyard.

I could rant for an hour on the lunches alone. They are awful. You can literaly peel the plastic off the top of your 'fresh' nacho cheese. I swear, all the equipment they give the lunch lady's is canned food and a large microwave.

THEN THEY CHARGE YOU FOR IT.

What happened to our parents taxes? Because if they had a say in it, im sure they rather give us free crappy food, instead of paying for it. But no, they had to give all the teachers an IPAD. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME. THEY GAVE THEM AN IPAD? On top of the computer, the touchscreen projector, and $2,500 to decorate/get supplies for the room?

I respect teachers. Some of the most important people in my life have been teachers. But giving them stuff they won't use.

How 'bout you stop with all the free coffee and worry about getting the students decent food?

If i have to pay $3.50 for an entree, it better be semi-decent. At least as good as the food they serve to criminals.

And some of the teachers. They look like they are drained of life. They don't care about the kids like they should. They treat them like prisoners. And some refuse to accept they're wrong, which we'll probably end up doing a hate on eventually. Here's something that happened a couple months ago.

Teacher 'Homework makes you learn the best'

Kid 'I disagree'

SHE FLIPS THE FREAK OUT. Starts yelling, telling him he is awfully wrong. (this isn't the part that annoys me the most)

Me: What about Finland

Teacher: What about it, prisoner. (OK, maybe she didn't say prisoner...)

Me: They have no homework, or very, very little amounts, and they are #1 in almost every educational test.

Teacher: They are in school longer.

Me: 7 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Teacher: Well, they must have no summer.

Me: Actually, they have the same time off as us, and you know why?

Teacher: No. You are being disrespectful.

WHAT? FOR STOPPING HER FROM MAKING THE KID CRY? Disrespectful for being right?

Vote if you think school is a prison.

Ps: Pheonix got a C on that report -Turtle