Schools have instituted “no corporal punishment” of kids for many years. I remember the “big paddle” hanging in the principal’s office when I was in grammar school, and it was a powerful incentive to behave. Kids who might have acted up, including bullies, knew that was a possibility and adjusted their behavior accordingly. Very few kids ever felt the paddle, but the possibility of that happening had a wonderful effect on keeping the peace in the school yard. Those days are gone, as is the recognition that there will always be bullies, and that they need a different kind of reprimand besides a talking to.
But liberals have also taken away the ability of parents to discipline their children, and the threat of child protective services paying a visit to the home is always there. Teenagers, in particular, have figured out the game, and so a parent must be very careful not to get ensnared into a bureaucratic nightmare simply because they administered some physical discipline. The schools, of course, are unable to administer any real discipline, so the next stop is to call the police. In Shawano, Wisconsin, that is exactly what is happening, but it is putting the parents in a double bind.
Shawano police have cracked down on bullying by holding parents accountable if their child picks on others.
A new city ordinance would allow police to fine parents if they are told their child is acting as a bully and they do nothing to stop it.
“It creates an avenue for us to work with parents to help find solutions,” said Shawano Police Chief Mark Kohl.
Police will work with the Shawano School District to identify bullies and notify parents, according to Kohl. Parents will then have 90 days to intervene. If they don’t and their child continues to bully, they will be fined $366. If there is a second offense within one year, they will be fined $681.
Many parents don’t even know their child is acting as a bully, according to Kohl. This will help them know more about what is going on with their kids, he said, because bullying can have very harmful effects.
The ordinance prohibits bullying and harassment of any kind, including cyber-bullying, within Shawano city limits. It is meant for anyone of school age, 18 and under.
The Shawano Common Council adopted the ordinance last week and it went into effect immediately.
There are so many problems with this ordinance that it is hard to know where to start. Schools need to have the tools and permission to stop bullying when and where it happens, and to quit the sole focus being on self esteem. We have now raised multiple generations of entitled, indulged, undisciplined monsters, as we see in the colleges and at political rallies where the kids shout down any speaker they disagree with. That is a whole gang of bullies that have been raised and taught they can get away with almost anything without any consequences. Schools need guidelines, not prohibitions, when it comes to disciplining kids. Instead, they have failed and now want to turn the problem back over to the parents.
But to decide that parents will now pay the price for bullying that their kids engage in is interesting. There appears to be no due process to determine the validity of the claim, and it looks like a fine way for the Shawano Police department to raise a good deal of money with little effort. More importantly, for parents to be held accountable for the actions of their children means they must be given fairly broad latitude in how to raise and discipline their kids, and the politicians and the educators have been chipping away at those rights for many years.
On the face of it, this seems like a good way to reinforce the message that parents have a real responsibility for raising their kids to be peaceful, polite members of society. In many cases, their hands have been tied, and upon further consideration this seems like it should have been a no-starter, and the city council should not have passed it without considering alternatives or determining the base problem. The reality is that the “experts” in child rearing have led us down the garden path, and we are now reaping a bounty of unmanageable, undisciplined kids.
Teach your kids not to bully and to stand up for themselves if they get bullied. Simple as that. Next thing you know the federal government will be involved in it.