Teacher Assaulted
Confiscating a Student’s iPod
By Daniel Muniz

Frank Burd, a 60-year-old teacher at Germantown High School in Philadelphia PA observed a 17-year-old student walking down the hallway of a school building with an iPod. Since having an iPod on school grounds was a violation of district policy, Burd confronted the student and confiscated it.

Incidentally, an increasing number of school districts throughout the country have already banned many such electronic devices on their campuses. As a result, more restrictions of iPods and cell phones are very quickly becoming the norm as school districts adopt to a changing culture and advances in technology.

However, the confiscation took a violent turn that led to an altercation in which the irate teenager assaulted the teacher. At that moment, another 15-year-old student joined the fracas against the educator. Up against two belligerent teenagers, Burd fell down and hit his head. In the fall, he suffered two broken bones in his neck. Fortunately for the teacher, his injuries didn’t result in any paralysis.
 

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The police immediately arrested both kids and charged them with aggravated assault, simple assault, and reckless endangerment. The Philadelphia School District also expelled both students.

Sadly, incidents like this are becoming more commonplace.

Electronic gadgets, which were once a novelty, have become increasingly sophisticated and powerful and cheap. As a result, they no longer belong solely to the domain of adults in that children have grown up using them. Not surprisingly, kids see iPods and cell phones and other electronics as an ordinary facet of life.

However, what is most alarming is that some kids are out of control and they are becoming frighteningly more belligerent. More children are picking up the bad attitudes and bad behavior from our pop culture icons and adapting them into their everyday lives. Although every generation before it has done the same thing, it is just that the popular culture of today is getting progressively sleazier as time goes on.

And finally, many teachers complain that more parents are also out of control. More and more of them lack maturity and responsibility and they also have attitudes. Consequently, they allow the bad behavior of their offspring to flourish unabated without any restraint or limitations. In turn, the schools have to deal with kids who know absolutely no boundaries or who have never faced any consequences for their actions.

Combining these elements together produces a volatile mix of unacceptable and inappropriate conduct.

Many parents are incensed that schools have the audacity restrict the possession of many electronics on their campuses and some have even encouraged their own children to break the rules. Not only are these parents doing a disservice to their children but they have also become part of the problem.

Electronic devices do cause enormous distractions which in turn interfere with the learning environment. For instance, some kids like to place a cell phone between their legs so they can discreetly text message their friends during class. Other kids use cell phones to snap pictures of their classmates taking their clothes off in the locker room or while taking a shower. And an iPod opens up another set of potential problems.

Although parents may view such problems as petty and trivial, they are very real to the faculty, staff, and other students who have to deal with them on a day to day basis. And in some cases, they also present liability issues to our schools especially since we are already live in a litigious legal environment.

It is imperative for a parent to express their disagreements and concerns directly to school officials and that they do it in a congenial sensible manner. However, it is equally vital for a parent to respect the decisions and authority of a school district even when they disagree with them. That is simply a level of responsibility and civility that is expected from adults in our society. The real trick is for parents to teach that to their offspring.

Overall, there are plenty of laws that I don’t like such as paying taxes but I go ahead and pay them anyways because I want to avoid the consequences.

What these two teenagers did to this high school teacher was reprehensible.

Regardless of how unfair this kid may have felt that the rule was, this educator was doing the job he was paid to do. He didn’t set the policy or establish the rule but he was obligated to enforce it. And if students cannot abide by the rules, then they must suffer the consequences. Both kids deserved to get arrested and expelled from school and they ought to receive the harshest penalties possible.

But furthermore, schools need to continually stress the totality of what happens when students break the rules and they need to explicitly explain the impact and severe ramifications of big violations such as hitting a teacher. It is unfortunate that incidents like this happen but they are bound to become more frequent as more unruly kids discover that there are actually boundaries and rules that cannot be broken.

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