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The falling ceiling; food tips for power outages; elementary student suspended full year; Boyd drama continues tonightThursday, September 18, 2008
Posted 1:45 p.m. Thursday Greetings. A few days have passed since I blogged, so sorry about that. Some rather odd stories have come across the seMissourian.com desk today. For one, a chunk of the ceiling in the Common Pleas Courthouse took a dive this morning, crashing into the jury box. Not much information yet, but we do know no one was hurt. This is an old courthouse, built in 1854, so who knows what kind of problem caused the ceiling tiles to crash in. As county buildings supervisor Don McQuay says in this article about the courthouse we published in July, an old building like this needs constant work. Looks like some more work is in store.
Kennett elementary student suspended a full year Our sister paper in Kennett, Mo., the Daily Dunklin Democrat, had a story today you don't see often — an elementary student there was suspended for an entire year after hitting and cursing a teacher. Unfortunately, there aren't many details available on exactly what happened, so it's a bit difficult to make an accurate judgment of whether or not the punishment was appropriate. But an entire year of suspension? Honestly, if this child is acting like this in class, either he (or she) has behavioral problems that need professional attention, or he's learning some bad habits at home. If the problem lies at home, won't suspension just make things worse? The answer is a big, fat "YES".
Boyd's fate tonight Neal E. Boyd — the Sikeston, Mo., native and tenor competing for $1 million and his own Vegas show on "America's Got Talent" — is probably quite anxious right now. Tonight he'll find out on live TV whether his run on the competition talent show will end or if he'll be one of the final five to compete next week. We've been tracking Boyd's run on our site, "America's Voice," where you can find video of Boyd's performance last night. And click on my column to get my take on where the competition stands now, and who's going to be in the top five. You can also watch video from all last night's performances on my blog.
Thanks for fair, storm photos Just want to say a big thanks to everyone who sent in photos of events and people at the fair, and those who sent in photos of damage from Sunday's storm. You can see them all in the Your Photos section.
Poll results I just realized I forgot to publish the results of the poll I posted last Friday. Here they are: Did you rush to fill your tank on relatively cheap gas Thursday?
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Matt Sanders, former arts and entertainment editor and reporter for the Southeast Missourian, was appointed editor of the paper's online operation this year. In his blog Extra Edition, he gives readers an extra dose of news they won't find in our print edition or elsewhere on our Web site, and gives them a glimpse of the operation of the new seMissourian.com.
Does Playboy want kids to be porn addicts? (November 20, 2008) Having trouble voting in our contests?; the dramatist guild weighs in on SEMO (November 19, 2008) The price we pay at Thanksgiving (November 17, 2008) Where to win free tix, cash on our website (November 14, 2008) The wonders of self-diagnosis (November 13, 2008) Sister Mary Ignatius riles them up; what's wrong with our search (November 10, 2008) Where to find election information on our site; I'm out for the weekend (November 5, 2008) Expect a busy day in election land; problems posting comments (November 4, 2008) Check out reader photos from the GOP rally (October 31, 2008) Blogging live from the Show Me Center (October 30, 2008) Ballooning voter rolls and a Southeast Missourian in an odd couple household (October 29, 2008) We'll be streaming Palin live (October 28, 2008) Did you go crazy for Palin?; Check out our new email system (October 27, 2008) Scary stuff at a suburban St. Louis school; your favorite Homecoming window decoration; Gov. Blunt's election concerns (October 24, 2008) What's wrong with movie theater alcohol?; Vote for your favorite Homecoming window decoration (October 22, 2008) Sikeston schools' bomb scare: Overreaction? (October 21, 2008) Would you want to be Joe the Plumber?; state 'retardation'; burning St. Louis office buildings (October 16, 2008) Become a 'community photographer' and make some cash doing it; Blunt administration builds 'ethanol infrastructure'; prez campaigns coming to Cape (October 15, 2008) New (and old) ways to interact with the news department; requiring renewable energy (October 13, 2008) Have you heard the latest on 'Killshot'? It's a doozy. (October 9, 2008) Know any thankful people? (October 7, 2008) On the trail of the white deer (October 6, 2008) Video of Boyd's win, there and here (October 2, 2008) Boyd's the winner (October 2, 2008) Tonight a chapter in Neal E. Boyd's life draws to a close (October 1, 2008) About our coverage of the Copa shooting (September 29, 2008) Chaffee gets a new police chief (September 25, 2008) Sikeston declares October "Neal E. Boyd month" hours before the tenor's finals performance; Emerson and the economic bailout (September 24, 2008) Images of the dastardly Capaha Park graffiti (September 23, 2008) Get to know the candidates: Where to find clips from our Nixon, Hulshof interviews (September 22, 2008) advertisement
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I agree with Wisconsin
Until these parents feel the pain of their child's actions at school, there will be no change in their behavior ... where "their" is both the parents and the kid.
Personally, I think the board did the right thing ... but the real opinions that matter are those of the teacher involved and the parents of the other kids in that class.
The kid has earned the suspension ... the parents have earned the opportunity to do some remedial behavior traning.
It seems that when I was in elementary school 20+ years ago, you rarely, if ever saw children this young with these types of behavioral issues. Now they seem to be the rule rather than the exception. IMO, it is a combination of changes in parenting AND in the educational system.
Lower_Taxes: Unfortunately schools are the only real place to deal with behavior problems in younger children.
Particularly if you are interested in "Lower Taxes", it is much cheaper to target children with behavior problems early on when they are in the school system instead of waiting until until later to deal with them in the criminal justice system.
SEMissouri70,
I see that on my computer, sometimes, as well. Seems to happen when I have a lot of stuff going on in the background.
I can tell you it's a computer-specific thing — something that doesn't happen to all users. I'll try to find out what's up.
Actually, I just went back and looked at the time stamp of my post last night when I said there were problems. It seemed to start around 7:30 last night.
Strangely, your Neal E Boyd section seemed ok. But individual stories were not as was the rest of the site.
Last night the layout of the site was all jacked up starting around 9pm-10pm.
The tops of stories were pushed down the page. Your "Home" "News" etc buttons at the top were loading vertically down the left side of the page as just plain text. Etc.
cubby and SEMissouri 70,
Can you guys be more specific as to what problems you're seeing, so I can complain to the hosting company?
Lower_Taxes... You are exactly right. They are there to educate children. That could also include educating children on how to act.
SEMO70, Nil
You people are whats wrong with the puplic school system today. They are not there to deal with peoples children who have behavior problems they are there to educate your child.
More problems again with the website. I'm getting tired of having to put up with missing posts, error messages and pages that don't load properly. Matt, just make the change with your website people and move on.
And let's also keep in mind that nobody has said that the child suffers from any particular mental or emotional problem, or that he comes from anything other than a model home. The most important thing is that ALL the kids get a fair shake, including the ones in the class who aren't involved yet had to endure having a kid like this in their class. If he has special needs then fine, get him some help; but a kid who would hit and curse an adult doesn't belong in a classroom of "regular" kids. How would you feel if I was a co-worker of yours who came in and punched out the boss, then came back and sat down at the desk next to you? Would you feel uncomfortable? Now imagine that your seven or eight years old. The board did exactly the big fat right thing.
Does the child realize he/she is being punished? Not going to school would seem to be a treat for most of that age. Who, if anyone, will truly feeling the immediate pain of the punishment? One thought is that the parent(s) will have to seek other than 'government-funded' day care - a.k.a. 'school' - for their kid.
If the child cannot abide by generally-accepted principles for whatever reason, then why should he/she be allowed into the general student population? How much 'special attention and education' does this child require that will otherwise take away resources for the students on the other end of the spectrum?
How many teachers are leaving the profession because of the time they spend with disciplinary issues, rather than teaching?
jcwill - it is easy to say that when your children attend private school.
Matt, your website seems to be having problems again.
You all bring up good points, but let's keep in mind this is a child. A child who acts in such a manner clearly hasn't been properly raised, or has a psychological problem. Should the child be punished for having either horrible parents or a mental illness?
Not saying there should be no punishment, but suspension for an entire year? Expulsion?
Both seem a bit harsh.
Judging from the picture it looks like this decision wasn't made on the fly. A lot of thought by many people went into it, so I'm inclined to support their decision. If this kid will do this to his teacher, what else is he capable of? And what might he do to another kid in his classroom? I don't know where he belongs, but it's not in a room with kids who are there to learn. Kudos to the administrators who are taking a stand.
The story said "lower elementary" so that would likely make it a 4th grader or lower. The child should certainly be punished for their actions, but a one year suspension is basically cementing a kid who is probably younger than 10 onto a juvenile delinquent track instead of attempting something to try to get the child off that path.
Of course since the story is rather sparse perhaps the child has a lengthy history of violence and this attack was just the final straw in which case the punishment might be justified. If it was merely the first major incident then he should be punished via a month or two of various in-school or after-school punishments and placed into a different classroom away from the teacher he assaulted.
If the parents had any level of involvement in their childs life I'd suspect you'd see a bipolar diagnosis(or similar) and a letter from a lawyer that would quickly have the suspension shorted to a week or two in this situation, so I'm guessing the school board perceives the parents as either being too uninvolved or too unintelligent to bother appealing.
We don't know the age of the kid. We don't know how the student "punched" the teacher. Was it a moment of a 1st grader having a tantrum and the teacher was barely touched? If so, this type of thing has been happening for decades in school.
If the student was in junior high or high school, I could see an suspension. An entire year? I think this is a little harsh. But again, it depends on what kind of "puch" we are talking about.
Seems to me that an elementary aged kid still has a chance to be worked with by the school system to work on the behavior problem. For a school system to all of a sudden "drop a student", that isn't going to help he/she at all. Try working with the child. Behaviors can change.
Matt
The student should be formally expelled from the school district not just a suspension. And it's no use blaming parents or society for his actions. If this child needs professional help it will be up to his parents to provide it and find alternate education for him/her. No teacher or classroom deserves this kind of abuse.
While it might be worse for the student who acted out if he or she is kept at home, it is most certainly better for the teacher and the rest of the class if this kid is separated from them!
What would you do if some kid punched your mom in the face, and then cussed her in a very abusive manner?
Would you want the kid back in her class a week, two weeks later?