Editorial: Kids’ behavior suffers meltdown

Friday, May 15, 1998 | 10:49 a.m.

BULLIES in schools are nothing new.

In fact, many adults still vividly remember the brunt of decades-ago taunts or provocations that sometimes ended in fights with the school bruiser. But the violence shown by some children today is beyond the pale, and should prompt a re-examination of the way children are raised and disciplined.

Two separate allegations of abuse in schools have been reported recently in the Sun. In the first case, a Las Vegas parent has filed a lawsuit in Clark County District Court on behalf of his daughter and a male classmate, both sixth-graders, who he says were bullied. The suit was filed against seven children and their parents. In another instance, the parents of a 7-year-old at an elementary school charge that their child was the victim of a mock sexual assault by several first-grade classmates. Her parents are upset that while the school said what happened was serious, administrators believed it wasn't much worse than typical playground horseplay.

Despite the disturbing allegations, it's too simplistic to place the blame solely on school administrators or teachers. Discipline begins at home, it doesn't start at school. If parents don't corral their children, how can we possibly expect teachers to instill a sense of responsibility when they arrive at school.

Too often with children it seems as if the inmates are running the asylum. And for parents who are doing a good job with their children by instilling respect, yet see their children have a tough time learning because their children are terrorized, it is easy to see why they seek drastic measures.

There is good reason to question the wisdom of dragging these problems into court. Were the parents aware of the misconduct of their children before the lawsuit was filed? They should have been notified and should have taken corrective action.

Maybe the lawsuit will wake up other parents to take more responsibility for their kids. But lawsuits themselves won't solve the overall discipline problem and will only clog our already overburdened courts. Parents do need to lay down the law with their kids. And if kids act up at school, teachers need to quickly remove the unruly child from the classroom, and school administrators need to stand by the teachers as they aggressively deal with school thugs.

As long as there are kids, there will be bullies. But the brutality of violence -- whether it's committed by children or adults -- seems to have spiraled out of control in recent years. There is no excuse for any school to casually dismiss assault allegations, whatever the age of the child.

Parents, teachers and school administrators have got to work together to put a lid on school violence, otherwise we'll end up creating a school environment where children won't be able to learn because they're victimized by violence.