VOX Teen Blog

Photo by Brandon Lee | VOX Staff

I recently read an article in the New York Times about a middle-school student in New Jersey who was sexually harassed by another student via text message. The boy had sent several sexually explicit and threatening texts to the girl on a late Saturday night.

The parents of the girl demanded that the school punish the boy, but this was an off-campus event and out of the school’s jurisdiction. They pressured school officials to contact the boy’s parents. But why should school officials be held responsible?

Too many parents are pushing schools to discipline and train their children because parents are either too lazy and afraid to deal with their kids, or because the kids are too unruly or because parents want to be their children’s best friends.

If parents fail to discipline their children, and children fail to realize their mistakes, it’s not the school’s problem. It’s the job of students and parents to handle personal conflicts and minor dramas outside the school environment.

While it is the school’s job to discipline students on the way they behave in classes and perform in coursework, it is not the school’s job to punish students for things they do in their personal lives outside of school.

School is a place where you go to learn and grow with other people. It should be thought of like a job. It’s your supervisor’s job to handle conflict at work and reprimand those that aren’t doing their job. It is NOT the supervisor’s job to handle personal issues outside of work like gossip, beef between co-workers, or anything that should or could be handled by the employee.

Instead of bullying the principal, the parents of the middle-school girl should have looked in a phonebook and called the parents of the boy the minute she showed them the texts.

— Brandon Lee | VOX Staff