if this isnt the fastest way to get your child killed....

[DYNAGOD]

Tragedies like last month's deadly shooting at a Red Lake, Minn., school have prompted more schools to offer cash and other prizes

[Zero_Hour]

Heck, give enough of a "reward" or "prize", and we can get them to turn in their parents too.

I think the comment at the end of the article says it best - "Bad Civics".

[Shape D.]

"Everyone just thinks it's a joke. No one is going to tell on their friends for cash," said senior Katie Burnes, president of the school's National Honor Society chapter. "If someone brings a gun to school or is doing drugs in the bathroom, no one has to pay me to let the teachers know."

This is pretty much how I see it working out. kids who would tell, are going to tell anyways. kids who won't tell on thier friends still wont tell on thier friends even for money. (Its that whole anti establishment thing.) and then there will be a few A-holes who will try to get $ for F'ing with people.

[Stingray]

and then there will be a few A-holes who will try to get $ for F'ing with people.

This is the only real change I can see this program making.

-S

[monkeybomb]

Imagine the negative impact if they acctually get all the kids to tell on each other.  It would create a generation of kids that trusut NO ONE.  we are already sceptical enough as a group without having them feel like those in charge are bribing your friends to be spies.

[Dartful Dodger]

The good thing is instead of taking a police officer's gun to school to shoot your classmate, you bring a knife to school, plant it on your classmate.  He goes to jail, you get a pizza, and the politicians get to say their plan works.

Everybody wins.

[cholin]

The good thing is instead of taking a police officer's gun to school to shoot your classmate, you bring a knife to school, plant it on your classmate.  He goes to jail, you get a pizza, and the politicians get to say their plan works.

Everybody wins.

Well you better share that damn pizza with your buddy or he might be a little mad once he becomes some guy's prision-wife

[DYNAGOD]

The good thing is instead of taking a police officer's gun to school to shoot your classmate, you bring a knife to school, plant it on your classmate.  He goes to jail, you get a pizza, and the politicians get to say their plan works.

Everybody wins.

and thats exactly how it will work too.
scary...first mcas,now this  lol

[Shape D.]

The good thing is instead of taking a police officer's gun to school to shoot your classmate, you bring a knife to school, plant it on your classmate. He goes to jail, you get a pizza, and the politicians get to say their plan works.

Everybody wins.

and once they check for prints on the knife, kid gets let go.  however he will constantly be watched by students and other teachers as a "Problem".  no matter how it ends up this program is crap.

[DYNAGOD]

The good thing is instead of taking a police officer's gun to school to shoot your classmate, you bring a knife to school, plant it on your classmate. He goes to jail, you get a pizza, and the politicians get to say their plan works.

Everybody wins.

and once they check for prints on the knife, kid gets let go.  however he will constantly be watched by students and other teachers as a "Problem".  no matter how it ends up this program is crap.

I smell a rat 

[shmokes]

Yes...I'm sure kids will be banging down the door to be able to park their car in the "This parking spot is reserved for narcs" parking space.

What exactly happens to adults to make them so stupid.  It shouldn't be THAT hard.  We were all kids once.  We should ALL have a frame of reference.  Is it just that the kids who didn't have a successful social life as children disproportionately occupy positions of power as adults, while a disproportionate number of the "cool" kids end up changing oil at Jiffy Lube?  Anyone has even a remote conception of how peer pressure works should immediately see how absurd this program is.

...and so on.

[sc1103]

If they give money, all I can see is my high school going even more bankrupt than it is now (budget has passed 3 of last 30 years ). Not that I care...all the money goes to wasteful programs anyways... ...end rant 

[ChadTower]

How condescending is that prize, anyway?  "destroy the life of a classmate, as well as yours... and we give you a pizza!"

Bet it's one of those crappy school cafeteria Elio's pizzas.

[missioncontrol]

If i remember correctly my school had decent pizza, but I still wouldn't rat out my friends for it.........

[fredster]

And the alternative is to....?

1) Wait until the kid with the gun shoots somebody...
2) Everybody walk through metal detectors and have daily searches....


Any more alternatives to stop drugs, guns, and alcohol in the schools ? 

[ChadTower]

Yeah, stop them in the parents and the kids will be less likely to have access to them or want them.

Stop the music industry from telling them it's cool to get high and shoot people in the street.

The problems are societal, they cannot be fixed at the school level.

[Shape D.]

Dude its simple enugh, kids are freaked out by this crap. If you had a gun and someone knew about it you would most likley be told on. It seems like a lot of these instences the kids show up to school with these guns and start shooting. In high school if I knew you were brining a gun to class, I would have ratted on you. But I'd prefer to do it anonomously. offering kids pizza, better parking, and money isn't going to change it at all. it will stay the way it always was.

unless maybe they start offering nachos too.

[ChadTower]

Not sure where you went to school, but in my HS, there were kids who had guns in school from time to time.  People knew who they were.  They were not to be messed with.  You stayed clear of them because sure, they can have THAT gun taken from them... but it's so easy for them to get another and find you.

The safest way for the individual to protect themselves is to simply mind their business.  There are a LOT more kids with guns in schools than there are kids who would shoot the school up... but if those kids get ratted out, they're going to find anyone they suspect of doing it off hours.

[DYNAGOD]

you know alot of times the kids carrying the guns arent the bad ones, they are merely trying to protect themselves from the ones who are bad.
when i went to junior high (15 or so years ago) i had to carry a 9" blade in my boot. i was one of 7 white kids in my school and i got the everliving <auto-censored> beat of me at least once a week for it until i did carry that knife.. Racism is just another word for majority rule.
 I would have killed anyone on the drop of a hat,and not felt even the slightest inkling of guilt if even one more person touched me without reservation. all i wanted to do was go to school and do my thing and be left alone.. i had had enough, and not one more person was gonna lay a hand on me..
i wasnt the trouble, the kids going around in groups kicking the ever living <auto-censored> outta people like me for their amusment were the ones who were the trouble. and if no one else would/could do anythign about it, i was going to..one way or the other..
many of th elawmakes ca never understnad the pressures these kids go through just going to school everyday, its LITERLALLY A LIFE AND DEATH endeavour..

[Dartful Dodger]

Let the teachers carry guns.

An armed society is a polite society.

[Zero_Hour]

Let the teachers carry guns.

An armed society is a polite society.

Indeed, the "Old West" is often looked back with fondness for their overwhelming civility. 

[monkeybomb]

Let the teachers carry guns.

I'd settle for a stick.

[ChadTower]

I'd settle for a freakin' book.  They don't have the funds for those, nevermind weapons.

[monkeybomb]

I'd settle for a freakin' book.  They don't have the funds for those, nevermind weapons.

Like all of politics, there are plenty of funds and no one honest to put them where the should go.

[Stingray]

I'd settle for a freakin' book.  They don't have the funds for those, nevermind weapons.

As an employee of the public schools I feel comfortable saying this is the smartest thing anyone has said in this thread.

-S

[Dartful Dodger]

Indeed, the "Old West" is often looked back with fondness for their overwhelming civility.

[monkeybomb]

I'd settle for a freakin' book.  They don't have the funds for those, nevermind weapons.

As an employee of the public schools I feel comfortable saying this is the smartest thing anyone has said in this thread.

-S

I'm telling you the money is there, it's the allocation.

[fredster]

A plan would be nice.

Since people don't seem to like this one, what would be the plan?

It's very easy to complain, you don't have to have answers to do that.

How about kick out all the students in a fight?  How about prison time for guns and drugs at school?

[Stingray]

I'd settle for a freakin' book.  They don't have the funds for those, nevermind weapons.

As an employee of the public schools I feel comfortable saying this is the smartest thing anyone has said in this thread.

-S

I'm telling you the money is there, it's the allocation.

Do you have any facts to back up this fairly wild claim? From where I'm sitting, every single area of public education seems to be lacking funds. I don't see any one program being overfunded at the expense of any other program. US public education is severely lacking in funds across the board, The school where I work has to cut programs every single year just to keep up.

How about kick out all the students in a fight?  How about prison time for guns and drugs at school?

These are already in effect to some extent, at least in the district where I work. Students involved in a fight are suspended. The amount of time varies, of course, depending on the situation. Guns and drugs are expulsion offenses. Students are turned over to the police. Any jail time is of course in the hands of the judicial system.

-S

[ChadTower]

Do you have any facts to back up this fairly wild claim? From where I'm sitting, every single area of public education seems to be lacking funds. I don't see any one program being overfunded at the expense of any other program. US public education is severely lacking in funds across the board, The school where I work has to cut programs every single year just to keep up.

It's not as wild as you would think, at least not where I live.  We have an excellent little public school system in my town, but there is still money being allocated to the wrong places.  I mean, do you really need so many administrators, and should they be making $120,000/year?  Start there, and work towards the things like building maintenance, where they pay thousands of dollars in utilities because they won't spend a fraction of that on maintenance.  It's more about which budget things come out of than it is about how much money there actually is...

[monkeybomb]

First off I'm a teacher (off-track) and totally with you.  My facts are more based on the enourmous wastes  funds I see daily.  I see it everywhere, the waste is just sickening.  Where I teach there is an exccess of funds, because it is one of  the lowest middle school in the state.  The money is spent so poorly you would go postal if you were here.  There are 8 assistant principals.  Each pulling down 6 figues plus there are other administators making Jjust as much.  They don't do much and the money could go elsewhere.  Our district is one of the biggest in the US(2nd I think).  There is more money spent on unhelpful things than acctual classrooms. 

The whole thing needs to be restructured in a bad way.  The cost of administrators is outragous and the money spent on books is as well.  Don't get me wrong books is the second best use of money after teachers it's just that it is speant poorly.  The way it works in California is that major programs are sold to districts and schools at top dollar to friends of politicians and board members.  Everything purched by the schools and individual class teachers must be at the highest retail price for teachers to be reimbursed.  Here is one small example.  If a teacher wants to buy a game of connect four for their class they can you get it themselves at toys r us for 5 bucks.  Or they can use the catalog agreed on by the board (politics) for 20.  That is 75% waste on the purchase. 

Here's a more concrete example of a program change based on connections.  Our (California) reading scores are near the bottom in the country.  So what can we do about it.  Well we went back to the old method of teaching Phonics.  Did we buy the cheap materials readily available or reproduce  a program already owned by a district.  Nope.  They spent Millions and Millions on the "Language!" program.  Here's the big suprise the owner of the program was best friends with the govenors (Pete Wilson) wife.  They demanded that every middle school and high schooluse the program and charged a fortune for each book. That came directly out of the individual schools budget.  Wait, the best part, the program SUCKS.

Instead of paying $85 for each math book, why don't we use a standard set of problems that can be owned by the state  Teachers could then suplement the problems with current texts.  These would cost 20 bucks per student and the core problems would only cost the printing.  By the way I may be shot by the publishers and vendors who are rich of this system.

I won't even beging to discuss the problems with special education (what I teach).

I may be dead wrong about there being "enough" funding, but I'd like to see the system run efficiently before we go get more.  Otherwise it will just be stolen like the rest of it.

[Shape D.]

Indeed, the "Old West" is often looked back with fondness for their overwhelming civility. 

Indeed, the "Old West" is often looked back with fondness for their school shootings. 

They had schools in the old west?

A plan would be nice.

Since people don't seem to like this one, what would be the plan?

It's very easy to complain, you don't have to have answers to do that.

How about kick out all the students in a fight? How about prison time for guns and drugs at school?

most schools now have a no tolerance rule. you get caught with weapons in school youre expelled.

[ChadTower]

That teacher said unhelpful.

[Stingray]

Okay you guys definitely have me on administrators being both too numerous and overpaid.

-S

[ChadTower]

Okay you guys definitely have me on administrators being both too numerous and overpaid.

Seriously, think how much you could do with the $150,000 (salary + benefits) one of those guys makes... and he doesn't produce a thing.

[shmokes]

Let the teachers carry guns.

An armed society is a polite society.

I agree.  This is why I hope Syria gets some nukes.  And Iran would be nice.  And Al Qaeda.  As soon as everyone has the ability to kill everyone else we will all be as gentle as lambs.  It just makes good sense.   

[ChadTower]

I agree.  This is why I hope Syria gets some nukes.  And Iran would be nice.  And Al Qaeda.  As soon as everyone has the ability to kill everyone else we will all be as gentle as lambs.  It just makes good sense.   

No it doesn't... if too many people get them someone will be stupid enough to use one, setting off the destruction of half the planet.

[JackTucky]

Pizza, beer, and good parking spaces used to really work well as incentives.

Now, if someone asks me to help them move or carry heavy stuff, or anything like that, and they add, "i'll buy the beer", I always say, "No thanks, I can afford to buy my own beer now"

Art

[shmokes]

No it doesn't...

Oh yeah, now I remember.  That whole "an armed society is a polite society" bit is retarded.  I got "makes good sense" and "retarded" mixed up there for a second.  It actually makes no sense at all.

[Dartful Dodger]

I got "makes good sense" and "retarded" mixed up there for a second.

We understand why you mix things up.

We also won