Passive Agressive

After decades of forcing students to not strike out, physically or verbally, at school against other students/teachers, and basically confining anger and frustration to the realm of passive agression, we have lately decided to police that. Look, I know making threats is bad. I also know people do it on a daily basis. Further, if some child does decide to go Columbine, and people--after the fact--find journals, on line or at home, that talk about killing and hating, then they will say the school/administration/government/etc. should have known, and there will be a lawsuit. Unfortunately this is total b.s. There are always warning signs after the fact. Tens or hundreds of thousands of people in this country have likely posted somewhere online that they would like to kill someone (George Lucas, a classmate, politician, whoever). How many would ever really consider doing such a thing? Maybe, maybe, 1%. Likely far less than that.

Most people understand that a parent whose son just flooded the house saying "I'm going to kill that kid!" is not speaking literally. For some reason people think expressions like this are worse when done online. In some ways I can see that (the ability to correct, the extra time needed to compose and upload, the notion of a permanent statement rather than a transient thought,...) but for most people who post online it is a form of release. I can't personally cause the earth to swallow the entire administration, but I can bitch about them, and propose research that would lead to a "human swallowing land generator" complete with drawings. Moreover, complaining online is even more of a release because of the possibility of many people reading it, even though I know very few do. Complaining to friends can get tiresome, especially when they all agree.

If we demonize kids for what they do online we will only serve to further alienate them by taking away one of their outlets, further pushing them to react badly. If there is a real problem reaching out is the only way to help. Their acceptance of that help must be voluntary. We cannot police thought, as much as the current administration and many schools want to.