Speak Up: Response to school safety question, Round 2
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Nearly $1 million is being invested in the Delaware Emergency Management Agency’s Comprehensive School Safety Program, part of a $10 million allocation to the School Safety and Security Fund. It will provide digital blueprints and maps for Delaware public school districts and charter schools for use by law enforcement and first responders. What should be included in the process of increasing safety in Delaware’s schools?
First and foremost, make parents accountable for their children, beginning in kindergarten. We don’t need police in the halls. That is nothing more than a cheap liberal trick, to transfer responsibility from parents and teachers to the police. We don’t need two teachers, or a teacher and a teacher’s aide, in every room. We need adherence to rules. We don’t need timeout, we need detention, after-hours detention. Parents, the bus is not running so come get your child. We don’t need liberal grading policies. We need strict 70% pass-fail grading. We don’t need to make excuses for the children. We need to make the children accountable for their performance and proud of what they accomplish. I see this as a proven formula for a successful student, in a safe and secure environment. Get rid of the Democrat, feel-good, “everybody is a winner” policies. Get rid of the liberal, “it’s not your fault” attitude. Reintroduce children to the world of self-reliance and accomplishment. Then, you won’t need to worry about secure rooms and dangerous corners and barren landscapes, across which no one can proceed unseen. — Dennis Mehrenberg
How do you hold a parent responsible when they are not allowed in the schools or the classes? Try doing an impromptu parental visit to your child’s class to observe your child and the interactions. This is exactly what happened during COVID-19. Parents finally got to see what goes on, and they didn’t like what they saw and heard. That is why so many students have left public school. Give parents control of the money to decide where their child attends. — Diane Butters-Eastburn
When I said make parents accountable, beginning in kindergarten, I meant parents need to ensure they fully understand the situation their child was involved in. As in, the school reports little Johnny hit little Sammy. Today’s parents, all too often, immediately go into defense mode. Their child never does anything wrong. All that said, parents holding their children accountable actually starts long before kindergarten. If a child is raised knowing it will be held accountable for its actions, it won’t display the readiness to get involved in negative actions. In short, if parents brought their kids up correctly to start with, the children wouldn’t be taking that lack of accountability to school with them. You do, however, bring up a very valid point. Schools need to get back to being more open and forthcoming with parents. If the school claims a child is disruptive, argumentative, etc., the school should invite the parents in to observe their child’s actions. That, too, is a part of a proven method of safe and secure education. — Dennis Mehrenberg
