In the United States today, our public schools are not very good at educating our students, but they sure are great training grounds for learning how to live in a Big Brother police state control grid. Sadly, life in many U.S. public schools is now essentially equivalent to life in U.S. prisons. Most parents don't realize this, but our students have very few rights when they are in school. Our public school students are being watched, tracked, recorded, searched and controlled like never before. Back when I was in high school, it was unheard of for a police officer to come to school, but today our public school students are being handcuffed and arrested in staggering numbers. When I was young we would joke that going to school was like going to prison, but today that is actually true.
The following are 18 signs that life in our public schools is now very similar to life in our prisons....
#1 Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has announced that school officials can search the cell phones and laptops of public school students if there are "reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or the rules of the school."
#2 It came out in court that one school district in Pennsylvania secretly recorded more than 66,000 images of students using webcams that were embedded in school-issued laptops that the students were using at home.
#3 If you can believe it, a "certified TSA official" was recently brought in to oversee student searches at the Santa Fe High School prom.
#4 A few years ago a class of 3rd grade students at one Kentucky elementary school were searched by a group of teachers after 5 dollars went missing. During the search the students were actually required to remove their shoes and their socks.
#5 At one public school in the Chicago area, children have been banned from bringing their lunches from home. Yes, you read that correctly. Students at that particular school are absolutely prohibited from bringing lunches from home. Instead, it is mandatory that they eat the food that the school cafeteria serves.
#6 The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending huge amounts of money to install surveillance cameras in the cafeterias of public schools so that government control freaks can closely monitor what our children are eating.
#7 A teenager in suburban Dallas was recently forced to take on a part-time job after being ticketed for using bad language in one high school classroom. The original ticket was for $340, but additional fees have raised the total bill to $637.
#8 It is not just high school kids that are being ticketed by police. In Texas the crackdown extends all the way down to elementary school students. In fact, it has been reported that Texas police gave "1,000 tickets" to elementary school kids over a recent six year period.
#9 A few months ago, a 17 year-old honor student in North Carolina named Ashley Smithwick accidentally took her father's lunch with her to school. It contained a small paring knife which he would use to slice up apples. So what happened to this standout student when the school discovered this? The school suspended her for the rest of the year and the police charged her with a misdemeanor.
#10 A little over a year ago, a 6 year old girl in Florida was handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.
#11 In early 2010, a 12 year old girl in New York was arrested by police and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk. "I love my friends Abby and Faith" was what she reportedly wrote on her desk.
#12 There are actually some public schools in the United States that are so paranoid that they have actually installed cameras in student bathrooms.
#13 Down in Florida, students have actually been arrested by police for bringing a plastic butter knife to school, for throwing an eraser, and for drawing a picture of a gun.
#14 The Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice has announced that it will begin using analysis software to predict crime by young delinquents and will place "potential offenders" in specific prevention and education programs.
#15 A group of high school students made national headlines a while back when they revealed that they were ordered by a security guard to stop singing the national anthem during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial.
#16 In some U.S. schools, armed cops accompanied by police dogs actually conduct surprise raids with their guns drawn. In this video, you can actually see police officers aiming their guns at school children as the students are lined up facing the wall.
#17 Back in 2009, one 8 year old boy in Massachusetts was sent home from school and was forced to undergo a psychological evaluation because he drew a picture of Jesus on the cross.
#18 This year, 13 parents in Duncan, South Carolina were actually ticketed for cheering during a high school graduation.
For many more signs that life in U.S. public schools is now essentially equivalent to life in U.S. prisons check out the short video posted below....
I will speak from the perspective of a graduate of an under preforming high school (3 years out, and in college).
While truthfully, many students do come to the schools and commit heinous actions such as sex on school grounds, selling and usage of drugs, bringing weapons, and using fowl language, the vast majority of students are actually innocent. Many of the faculty and the states that control school funding and policy, have become paranoid and have been bombarded by parents and officials with threats and their nonsupport if they do not change those things. So what do the schools do? They enforce these policies as a prevention method. No student is excluded. Also, these people do not understand the generation at hand, and do not attempt to identify other effects that may be influencing bad behavior. They simply attempt to fix it by placing more restrictions on the students, the very restrictions that cause rebelliousness and failure. In the particular high school that I attended, our school was more focused on dress code than actual education. Only those students that were seen as “gifted with natural book smarts” were focused on, and then even after them, those students that were more popular and outgoing, and then out of those, usually white students. Minority students, average students, and underachievers were left out of this loop. If you ask me, those students need more support because they need the most help, and with those groups being the majority of a school’s population on average, it’s no wonder schools seem to be under-preforming, and all this craziness is happening. I was one of those minority, overachieving students who didn’t stand out much. At one point, my school declared that wearing head bands, earrings, and purposefully color coordinated bracelets and such were indicative of gang activity. I wore a black head band with white polka dots and was cited immediately for it. The teacher didn’t do too much, but reminded me of the policy that we were no longer allowed to wear them, or we faced possible suspension. SUSPENSION OVER A HEADBAND??? Since when had i been a problem child, and what reason did I have to be in a gang? I was astonished. Apparently so were other students and parents, as the rule was abolished soon afterward. Students are not being prepared for college properly. They are told they can underachieve and are being walked along by the hand like children, so they get to college, are overwhelmed by freedoms they’ve never had, and flunk out…I’ll be graduating in a semester from college. I refused to be that way, but not all students have the support necessary to reach this point. I fear what my 1 year old daughter will be subjected to in school when she arrives at that age.
Erinn,
I’m a bit older than you from what I gather, but my story is almost the same. I opted out of the school system entirely and decided to homeschool my two girls. It’s been hard, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I can’t afford private school and where I live, public school is simply not an option – it’s a terrible school district.
Now, 16 years later: My oldest daughter, 16, has already been accepted to college (not that she’s going, but it was nice to know she was recognized by the college) and my 14 year old is working professionaly in the field she wants to go into. I honestly do not think that my children would have had these opportunities if they had attended our local public school.
It was worth the sacrifices and I’m happy with the way my kids turned out!
Good luck to you – you sound like a very sincere woman.
Well crime in public schools is high. Morals in the USA are low. Public schools lowered the standards, so the people of color can pass. While doing this we are now not even in the top 20 in the world in education.Parents let their children have more rights and make their own choices.We socially promote students instead of letting them earn the right to go on in school to the next gread. The work ethic is low in the USA. Drugs are used by more Americans then any other country and parents are usually the teachers of drug use, now we wonder why we have a poor society. Stupid parents raise stupid kids.
You really don’t understand how bad it has become unless you are a student as well. I have a little brother who is in third grade, he never gets into any trouble and makes very good grades. At this public school he goes to you are required to wear a uniform every day. A few months ago, he gets on the bus with his uniform (white shirt, navy pants, his hair is combed back just like always) the only difference is his pants. They have an elastic waistband and fit him perfectly so it didn’t even occur to me to put a belt on him. A few hours later the school called because he was sent to the office and can no longer stay at school. I come in and he is crying. They start barking at me that he has violated school policy by ignoring the dress code. How? He is not wearing a belt. He thought he had done something wrong and was crying his eyes out the rest of the day.