I concur with the ‘Independent Children’ column that appeared in the Daily Post on Tuesday.
As an elementary school kid in the 1950s, I could either ride the school bus, or my bicycle, the 10 miles to school. My parents didn’t care which, as long as I got to school on time – nor did the school CARE, for that matter. I usually opted for the bus, because I didn’t have to get up as early. My parents would have laughed their heads off at the idea of driving me to and from school… or waiting for me at the bus stop.
In 1993, my son was an 18-year-old high school senior. Mrs. Beatty was teaching health at his school, so he’d ride to school with her in the morning.
One morning he didn’t get up early enough to eat breakfast, so when they arrived at the school Mrs. Beatty parked in the faculty lot, and my son walked off campus to the McDonalds immediately adjacent to the parking lot to get something to eat.
When he walked back on campus (less than 5 minutes later, and still before school started) he was detained by a dean, and school resource officer for having “left the campus”. He was taken to the principal’s office, and told he would have to stay after school until a parent picked him up.
Our son told Mrs. Beatty, who in turn told him that because she always left the campus at noon after her last class; that she would not come back to pick him up after school; that he didn’t have to stay after school for such nonsense, and to go home on the school bus as usual. He did so.
When I heard about it I agreed, and told him that if anyone has a problem with that, they can call me.
Upon his return to school the next day, he was summoned to the principal’s office and told that because he did not stay after school the previous day, he would now have to come in to ‘Saturday detention’ at the school the following weekend. He reported that to me that evening. I told him he wasn’t going to ‘detention’ the next Saturday, or any Saturday, for that matter.
The next day I went to the school, met with the principal and told him the same thing. He threatened my son with suspension, and me with arrest for… well, what I’m not exactly sure. He then called the school resource officer to the office.
This was before cell phones, so I asked the principal if I could use his phone to call the school board attorney (whom I knew from the local bar association) to see if it was the official legal position of the school board that an adult student couldn’t walk 50 feet off campus to get something to eat before school started.
I then asked the resource officer — who had attended one of my training classes on the legal authority of school resource officers — if he was there to arrest me? He said, “No, Mr Beatty. I’m just here to watch!” That confused the principal, since he hadn’t told the officer my name.
Before I could get the school board attorney on the phone, the principal said to forget the whole episode. I asked him if he would ‘forget the whole episode’ for any other parent who didn’t have the knowledge I had to call his bluff. He said he was busy, and walked away.
As the writer of the ‘Independent Children’ column pointed out, school administrators too often take on the role of petite dictators — which certainly was the case during the pandemic. I think that is as much of a factor contributing to increased mental health problems in kids as anything. The school systems will never improve until administrators are brought to heel…
Gary Beatty lives between Florida and Pagosa Springs. He retired after 30 years as a prosecutor for the State of Florida, has a doctorate in law, is Board Certified in Criminal Trial law by the Florida Supreme Court, and is now a law professor.