Attacks on Teachers (and Students)

[AnneMarble]

On the national news, you might have heard about the attack on art teacher Jolita Berry (http://www.examiner.com/a-1333428~Violence_at_Baltimore_area_schools_grabs_n ational_spotlight__awareness.html) at a high school in Baltimore. In this case, students recorded the attack on a cell phone and posted it on MySpace. Also, to make things worse, school authorities have been of no help. The principal implied that the teacher brought the attack upon herself by daring to tell the student to sit down
:e2thud:

On top of all that, the students involved were only suspended for a couple of days. So now the teacher can't return to the classroom because she's afraid.

Since that case went public, other Baltimore teachers have flooded the teachers union with reports of similar attacks, ranging from kids throwing pencils at them to kids slapping them and worse. In Baltimore, there have been more than 100 assaults on teachers in the current year -- not the current school year, but the current year. Yet the president of the union says that schools chief (Andres Alonso) has a history of discouraging principals from getting rid of violent students.

On the news this morning, an administrator said that the cause of these attacks is that most teachers haven't been given training in how to defuse potentially violent incidents students. That's odd, I thought violent students were causing the attacks. :rolleyes: Why not get rid of the students who are that violent? Of course, we know the answer -- they don't want the graduation rates to go down. :rolleyes:

Of course, this isn't just a Baltimore problem. This happens everywhere. And students are in danger, too. In Florida, a girl was beat up for 30 minutes by fellow students, who recorded the whole thing so that they could post it on-line. All in response to something she said on her MySpace or FaceBook page. Again, some people are blaming the victim for what she posted, while others are blaming Facebook, YouTube, the Internet in general.

So what do you think is the real cause of these problems? Are YouTube, MySpace, etc. really responsible for making these problems worse? Or does the blame go to administrators who let it happen? Horrible parents? Terrible kids? A combination of all of the above?

To be fair, I realize there are major problems here, and schools can't handle everything. But can't they at least stop blaming the wrong people? Schools can't "fix" all problems, especially when some kids come from terrible homes. So what can school administrators do?

[WendyNYC]

I saw that yesterday. God, that poor, poor woman.

I don't think that YouTube and MySpace are making these problems worse. I think that they've been there for a long time, and now we are finally seeing it for ourselves. And it's tough to watch.

[Takvah]

Expel these punks. Schools really have no choice unless they want to open themselves up to liability. If you know a kid is a threat to others and he/she is allowed to remain on campus, the school is accepting some level of responsibility. In this lawsuit happy society (and in this case getting beat by a thug it would be warranted), it will be the cash cow school boards that will be sued, not the deadbeat parents of these degenerates.

[Plot Device]

My favorite war drum to beat is my position that smaller class sizes are the answer. I have no idea how many of you have ever held a job of being either a supervisor or a manager (be it in retail or food service or some white collar or industrial job, etc), but when you go to fill out your resume, you're advised to precisely state how many people you were in charge of. I've been in charge of up to 5 people at once (my ice cream parlor days). My comfort level is supervising just 3 people, but 5 I can handle. I once worked under the authority of a supervisor in a white collar job I held and she had 14 poeple on her staff --and she told me she was angry with management for foisting so many people onto her staff-- she wanted it to get back down to 9 again like most of the other supervisors in the department. I worked in a restaurant once where the general manager had about 60 people who answered to him (wait staff, kitchen help, bar tenders, maintence people hostesses, etc). I don't know how he did it but he was awesome.

What I'm saying is, it makes a huge difference on your resume to say: "supervised a shift where 3-5 people reported directly to me" vs. "supervised a staff on which 10-14 people reported directly to me," vs. "managed a department in which 30-35 people reported directly to me" etc.

So with school teachers, most teachers I know are comfortable with the dynamics of 15 to 25 students. But when the number of kids in a classroom starts getting up to 30 and even 40 kids, everything changes. (I mean, c'mon, people! Wake up! Whole college courses are taught on the science of group dynamics!) Those teachers are operating in combat mode, and the smartest, shrewdest thing they can do is make the kids do worksheets all day long (keeps the kids very quiet and busy and in their seats and on-task). But then those teachers get accused of being lazy when they do that. But it's NOT laziness, it's just smart classroom management --it's sheer survival at that point.

Most regular classrooms here in the USA have about 28-32 students. Some of the poorer school districts are very top heavy with 35-44 students all shoe-horned into just one classroom and there is only one teacher in that class. And that is TOO many kids. I'd like to see it get cut by more than a third.





The following is my wish fanatsy for mandatory caps on all class sizes in the Regular Classroom throughout the whole country:

Kindergarten = 9 + 3 (That means you start with 9 kids, and if more kids show up during the school year, that's okay, as long as it's no more than 3 additional students. But then when you hit a 4th additional student, you have to open a second Kindergarten unit with its own classroom and it's own teacher, etc. and divide those 13 students between the two teachers)

Grade 1 to 3 = 12 + 3

Grade 4 to 5 = 12 + 4

Grade 6 to 8 = 12 + 6

Grade 9 to 12 = 14 + 10




But the bean counters won't hear of it. Why hire 25 school teachers when you can hire just 11? Why have 18 classrooms when you can squeeze all those kids into just 10?

Each new classroom means another whole TV set and DVD player to buy. Another projector screen. Another set of wall maps. Another set of curriculum. Another whole teacher salary. Another whole pension. All that square footage of classroom space to heat and light. Too much money.





They'd rather spend the money on metal detectors and drug sniffing dogs and armed security guards.

OR ... whenever a HUGE load of cash (like a whole honking $10 million in grants or donations) gets sent their way, they'd rather build a bigger school with all the bells and whistles like an indoor heated swimming pool and a bigger library and a computer center. Maybe even an observatory or an art wing.

But hire more teachers and build more classrooms and reign in the teacher-student ratios for the entire district???? Nahhhhhhhhhh! 35 to 40 kids per classroom is juuuuuuuuuuuuust fine!





.

[Jenan Mac]

On the news this morning, an administrator said that the cause of these attacks is that most teachers haven't been given training in how to defuse potentially violent incidents students. That's odd, I thought violent students were causing the attacks. :rolleyes: Why not get rid of the students who are that violent? Of course, we know the answer -- they don't want the graduation rates to go down. :rolleyes:

Of course, this isn't just a Baltimore problem. This happens everywhere. And students are in danger, too. In Florida, a girl was beat up for 30 minutes by fellow students, who recorded the whole thing so that they could post it on-line.


That's just what makes it into the news.
This year my daughter and her best friend have been bullied, psychologically and physically, by two boys in their class. K's mom and I have been in the office time and again, over and over, until we've both acquired the reputation of "Attila the Mom". Nothing's been done because "well, we didn't see anything". Last week, one of the kids attacked the lunch lady. He got suspended for three days.
Big frickin' whoop.
This particular kid is big for his age, and meaner'n a snake. He has no grownups who give a damn about him. I'm not one to condemn children on a whim, but if he's not in jail at eighteen, I'll eat my hat.

[DWSTXS]

I've managed 45-50 people and I can truthfully say that I'd rather manage 100 adults than 10 children.

Teachers are woefully underpaid.

[Gravity]

I'm not one to condemn children on a whim, but if he's not in jail at eighteen, I'll eat my hat.

Or dead. Punks like that, sooner rather than later some other punk is going to park a round in his chest. It's the implosion of Western society, folks, and we ain't seen nothin' yet.

[Takvah]

I've managed 45-50 people and I can truthfully say that I'd rather manage 100 adults than 10 children.

Teachers are woefully underpaid.


:D! Amen to that!

[HeronW]

I hope the teacher files an assault against the feral 'children'. I don't care if the darling kids are under 18. They are a violent gang as much as those on the streets raping joggers, mugging the elderly, and setting fire to indigents after bludgeoning them to death for fun.

Big classes when I went to school, some yelling back and forth with a few 'problem' students, but no assualts. We had kids going to the bathroom to take illegal drugs, to smoke, to set off cherry bombs in the toilets but we didn't have psychopaths in training pounding on teachers.

[Gravity]

"Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold..." Smart guy, that Yeats. Prescient.

And one crisp American dollar says ten years from now we'll wish we'd done more to stop this.

[Jenan Mac]

That'd be a sucker bet. I can't imagine anyone arguing with you on that.

[Gravity]

My wife was a teacher, years ago. She quit because of this very crap, and it wasn't half as bad as now. All I know is, if some 18-year-old, hat-sideways, pants-hanging-down gangbanger had laid a dirty paw on her, he wouldn't have seen 19. Truth.

[donroc]

We need administrators and boards with both common sense when to not expel/suspend kids for so called zero-tolerance offense and the guts to face all law suits instigated by parents and the ACLU when dealing with the violence.

ALSO, AND AS A FORMER HS TEACHER, I OFFER THIS IN CAPS. TEACHERS COMPLAIN ABOUT PAY AND CLASS SIZE, OFTEN GOING ON STRIKE FOR HIGHER PAY AND SMALLER SIZES, BUT IS THERE AN INSTANCE ANYWHERE IN THE USA WHERE THEY HAVE GONE ON STRIKE TO DEMAND SAFE SCHOOLS SO THEY CAN REALLY TEACH AND THE STUDENTS CAN LEARN? I THINK NOT, AND THAT IS THE STRIKE THAT IS URGENTLY NEEDED NOW.

[CACTUSWENDY]

I mananged 100+ adults and it was not a problem. If anything came up it was handled.

I can not even begin to guess at trying to handle a classroom of kids. I helped at school when mine were young and the classrooms were large. Wore me out after just four hours a day. (K)

I think the kids that cause the problems should be sent to the schools that deal with those kind of kids. Tucson had one for High School and it was like being in the army. They took no crap from any kid. It was the last school chance most of them had. From what I have read about that school they have a lot that finish and turn their lives around. IMHO

[Cranky]

We need administrators and boards with both common sense when to not expel/suspend kids for so called zero-tolerance offense and the guts to face all law suits instigated by parents and the ACLU when dealing with the violence.

ALSO, AND AS A FORMER HS TEACHER, I OFFER THIS IN CAPS. TEACHERS COMPLAIN ABOUT PAY AND CLASS SIZE, OFTEN GOING ON STRIKE FOR HIGHER PAY AND SMALLER SIZES, BUT IS THERE AN INSTANCE ANYWHERE IN THE USA WHERE THEY HAVE GONE ON STRIKE TO DEMAND SAFE SCHOOLS SO THEY CAN REALLY TEACH AND THE STUDENTS CAN LEARN? I THINK NOT, AND THAT IS THE STRIKE THAT IS URGENTLY NEEDED NOW.

I would like to think there would be a lot of parents that would lend their full support to such a strike, too.

[WendyNYC]

I would like to think there would be a lot of parents that would lend their full support to such a strike, too.

I would like to think so, too, but often parents are part of the problem, either by being bad, or absent because they are working two jobs just to get by, or just entirely apathetic.
Recently there was a failing school in the NYC school system that was in negotiations to be acquired by a charter school. It would have meant huge changes to their kids daily life (and I'm not arguing that things would have been better, just very different, longer school days, etc.) A vote among the parent body was needed for talks to continue or reforms to be made in general. The vote was to be held over several days, both morning and at night, and would only take a minute or two to cast a ballot. Guess how many parents showed up to vote?

Less than 2% of them.

[Cranky]

I would like to think so, too, but often parents are part of the problem, either by being bad, or absent because they are working two jobs just to get by, or just entirely apathetic.
Recently there was a failing school in the NYC school system that was in negotiations to be acquired by a charter school. It would have meant huge changes to their kids daily life (and I'm not arguing that things would have been better, just very different, longer school days, etc.) A vote among the parent body was needed for talks to continue or reforms to be made in general. The vote was to be held over several days, both morning and at night, and would only take a minute or two to cast a ballot. Guess how many parents showed up to vote?

Less than 2% of them.

I know, and it makes me sad. My husband and I get gushed over by our school (even with so many getting special ed services, and you'd think they'd HATE us, lol), simply because we do what we SHOULD do...which is care. We talk to the teachers, and we work with them, not against them.

But my husband hears other parents bitching about the school all the time (he manages a local hardware store), and for the same reasons that we LOVE the school.

Freaky.

[Takvah]

We should license people to breed.

[Cranky]

We should license people to breed.

Tempting as that is, I'd have to decline that innovation. I'm sure I wouldn't have been allowed. *see above post* And I can't imagine my life without my tiny tyrants. :)

[small axe]

I like the stories where the teachers and the students are having sex, more than the ones where they are trying to kill each other.

I'm waiting for the story where sex with teacher segues dramatically into school violence. Tabloid TV is praying for one that juicy!

Maybe the recent third graders' plot to handcuff their teacher was kinky bondage sexplay ... tell me they got the idea off a video game that they learned to play in a Mormon compound, c'mon ... c'mon ...

[stormie]

I don't think that YouTube and MySpace are making these problems worse. I think that they've been there for a long time, and now we are finally seeing it for ourselves. And it's tough to watch.
Yes, it's been happening. Several years ago, a seventh grade teacher in a Catholic school here admonished a student who was misbehaving. The student went home to his parents and told them how she yelled at him in front of the class. Instead of the parents going to the teacher (or, better yet, being upset with their kid for doing something wrong), they went directly to the principal, a nun. The principal then made the teacher apologize to that student in front of her class. Guess what that taught the students?

One year I taught preschool (I don't mention it much because it was very difficult answering to that director). The director told me I was never to use the word "no," merely guide the child away from what he or she was doing. Right. You know how many times I got kicked in the leg? And if I saw one more parent patting their dear one on the head, even as they screamed their head off at their mother or father....

Okay, I'm off my soapbox now.

[NikeeGoddess]

So what do you think is the real cause of these problems? Are YouTube, MySpace, etc. really responsible for making these problems worse? Or does the blame go to administrators who let it happen? Horrible parents? Terrible kids? A combination of all of the above?well, first of all -- EXACTLY what Stormie just said. many parents need to have more respect for teachers and support them in the positive development of their child. instead they stick up for their knuckleheaded kids and blame the teachers for it.

many years ago they put the PSA on tv with a question/message: "it's 10 pm. do you know where your children are?" no one complained and some people laughed b/c their kids were watching that announcement on tv with them.
there needs to be more public service announcement about raising your child. it's not fair to assume that just because you are a parent that you have all the answers. any idiot can have a baby. they have PSAs about talking to your kids about drugs, and now some about checking out their internet habits. they need to go further and dig deeper.

[icerose]

I think the kids that cause the problems should be sent to the schools that deal with those kind of kids. Tucson had one for High School and it was like being in the army. They took no crap from any kid. It was the last school chance most of them had. From what I have read about that school they have a lot that finish and turn their lives around. IMHO

I'm all for this. I've seen a lot of these programs do wonders. Detention, and juvie and so forth aren't the answer, strict, disciplined lifestyles where they are taken away from all the bad influences in their lives are.

Administraters need to support teachers. Thankfully around here we have a zero tolerance for bullying policy. If the kid bullies another kid, they go to jail, not suspended, jail. If they bully a teacher, they get expelled and put into a special program. There is zero tolerance and I've never heard of a violent attack in any of our schools.

tell me they got the idea off a video game that they learned to play in a Mormon compound, c'mon ... c'mon ...

Mormons don't have compounds so I have no idea what you're talking about.

[donroc]

The 1955 film THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE was a warning that has yet to be heeded. The way things are now, we need "halfway" schools, and the bigger cities and towns can accomodate them, schools for those coming out of juvie camps and for those who have been violent and unrepentingly disrespectful--the flipperoo and f u to teachers. Once they show they want to learn and can be reformed, they can be mainstreamed; if not, at least they are not harming the education of others in the classroom. Maybe their parents can be required to attend parenting classes too.

School administrators are another category. In Los angeles, they moved principals and vps around every five years regardless of quality. Nearly all administrators and most counselors were those who were anxious to escape classroom teaching.

Also, the public school curricula are both archaic and PC gone amok. As I mentioned before on another thread, U.S. History is taught for only a year, usually in the 11th grade, and has been so since my parents were in school, and probably before even that in the WWI era. That is merely one example. There are some great public schools, but in the big cities especially, they are becoming rare if not extinct.

No discipline in the home, no classroom control in schools, no draft, and is there any surprise we have an unruly mob (with exceptions) tapping their text messages and Ipod extensions in their ears growing into legal adulthood?

A few years ago, Palm Beach County in Florida had 59% of HS students graduating, and one may wonder how many of those earned social promotions or graduated with the easy low GPA.

I taught in a school in L.A. that when I started had 85% of students going on to college; 20 years later, 75% of seniors were graduating. That was 21 years ago, and the trend has been going south since.

Frightening.

God help the Republic. An emotionally immature lumpenproletariat is fast approaching, ready for a demagogue.

[icerose]

I completely agree, Donroc, I'm scared to death to see what this generation does to the world. My generation is bad enough, this next one is down right scary. I only see it degrading from here until something very bad and irreversable happens.

[Plot Device]

I completely agree, Donroc, I'm scared to death to see what this generation does to the world. My generation is bad enough, this next one is down right scary. I only see it degrading from here until something very bad and irreversable happens.

This is precisely why I got out of teaching.

[Joe270]

The way things are now, we need "halfway" schools, and the bigger cities and towns can accomodate them, schools for those coming out of juvie camps and for those who have been violent and unrepentingly disrespectful--the flipperoo and f u to teachers. Once they show they want to learn and can be reformed, they can be mainstreamed; if not, at least they are not harming the education of others in the classroom. Maybe their parents can be required to attend parenting classes too.

Some schools are punishing parents with the child. That sounds like the best plan of action to me.

Many districts have 'alternative schools' for the worst of the worst. Certainly they need more of them, and a 'near-alternative' school as a sort of 'half way house' before they can go back to a normal school.

I'm scared to death to see what this generation does to the world. My generation is bad enough, this next one is down right scary. I only see it degrading from here until something very bad and irreversable happens.

My children are straight 'A' students in accellerated classes, so I know my views of the next generation are skewed, but I see much to be thankful for in their friends.

They seem more savvy and more questioning. They are articulate and polite, but engage easily in conversation with adults. They find novel, effective solutions. The are mature about what life is about, careers, how to achieve success, children, etc.

I'm not worried about the next generation. The xgen seems to excel in slacking and video games, but the generation behind it seems pretty serious about life.

[clintl]

Many districts have 'alternative schools' for the worst of the worst. Certainly they need more of them, and a 'near-alternative' school as a sort of 'half way house' before they can go back to a normal school.

The school district I teach in actually has two levels of alternative high schools. One is for the really hardcore cases, the other a more traditional continuation high school.

My children are straight 'A' students in accellerated classes, so I know my views of the next generation are skewed, but I see much to be thankful for in their friends.

They seem more savvy and more questioning. They are articulate and polite, but engage easily in conversation with adults. They find novel, effective solutions. The are mature about what life is about, careers, how to achieve success, children, etc.

I'm not worried about the next generation. The xgen seems to excel in slacking and video games, but the generation behind it seems pretty serious about life.

I agree with respect to my accelerated students. They are a wonderful group of kids, and I noticed it right away as soon as I met them. I have them first period, so I always know the day is going to start pretty well.

[Joe270]

The school district I teach in actually has two levels of alternative high schools. One is for the really hardcore cases, the other a more traditional continuation high school.

Well, Clintl, seems like you're the person we need to hear from on this topic.

Are the alterantive schools working? Does your district go after the parents as well? If so, does it seem to work?

What options have you heard about which might help the problem?

[clintl]

I'm a first-year teacher, so I don't really have time to keep track of what's going on at the district's other schools - I'm just trying to make sure I have something for my students to do every day.

However, I was talking to the mother of one of my students a couple of days ago, and it turns out that she teaches at the hardcore alternative school. And she happens to have one of the students that I had the first semester, and who got himself sent over there after a fight on campus. She said he's doing OK in school there, which was better than what he was doing in my class, which was sitting there all period doing nothing.

I think it makes our school safer - not all of the students I've known this year who were sent over to the alternative schools were a threat to commit violence, but certainly some of them were. However, it's a suburban school district in a not particularly dangerous city, and there doesn't seem to be a big problem with fights and other violence. There are gang members among the student body, but the administration seems to be pretty effective at keeping the gang activity off campus. There was a gang-related stabbing involving our students elsewhere in town a couple of months ago.

I haven't heard of a case where the district imposed any sanctions on the parents, and really don't know what kind of sanctions would actually work. I do know that we have someone working part-time with some of the at-risk kids, and he has talked about plans to visit parents. I haven't seen him for a while, though - he's not coming to my room any more.

[Jenan Mac]

In Florida school districts are organized by county, which makes some of them just ungodly huge. I think Hillsborough (Tampa) is one of the top 20 in the nation, and Duval, Pinellas, Dade, and a few others are right up there.
The problem with this is that so much gets lost in the shuffle. if an elementary school goes off bad somewhere along the line, it's just easier to say "well, y'know, Fringes-O'-Urbania Elementary just isn't what it used to be ten years ago, it's the changing demographic, you have to understand...but hey, look at how many awards Way-Out-in-the-Back-of-Nowhere Elementary is getting!" There's no commitment to some of the schools, or to the kids in them. If they had 10 elementaries in the district instead of fifty (with the corresponding number of middle and high schools), it'd be harder for the administration to write off a few hundred kids.

And the fact that they're warehousing them, with 2-3000 students per high school and over a thousand in some elementaries, just exacerbates it all. Talk about your "Lord of the Flies" scenarios.

[kikazaru]

I know a woman who teaches in a juvenile detention facility. She gets hard core kids, all with a history of drug abuse/alcoholism/violence and 99.9 percent of these kids come from homes where these issues are present in their parents and their communities. The funny thing is that (after the initial adjustment) most of these kids love being there because they are in an environment where there is structure, and where the workers/teachers care about each one individually. These kids have literally never had anyone care if they are eating enough or if they are clean or how they are emotionally - or even to care enough to enforce the right behaviour. She said that kids actually cry when they have to leave because "jail" was the best home they have ever had.

Imo this is a huge commentary on why there are so many kids gone wrong - sure there are some bad apples born to good parents, but I believe for the most part kids behave this way because they were born into homes where the parents either have little or no parenting skills, the parents have emotional issues or are substance abusers or they just do not have the capacity to love their own children for whatever reason. These kids are feral in that they are literally turned out to raise themselves and each other, with little or no positive input from any adults. In fact the only time many of these kids get any positive strokes from their parents is when their bad behaviour is rewarded when their parents rage against teachers who dare to take issue with the violence and disrespect meted out by their offspring.

I see this in the school that I work (gr JK to 6) the kids that are the worst are the kids whose parents are extremely young (barely out of their teens themselves) or are alcoholics or drug abusers and they see nothing wrong with this type of behaviour because that is all they knew, and now they are repeating this cycle. You can look at a 4 year old and literally chart the course of his/her life because of their home life.

This to me is tragic. That said no matter how terrible a home life or their upbringing, for the good of society bad behaviour should never be allowed or tolerated in the classroom. Smaller classrooms would help but so would being allowed to get rid of the bad apples. School may be a right, but I believe that it should also be forfeit if an individual interferes in the rights of others to live and learn in a safe environment. Juvenile homes, kiddie jail sounds extreme but imo it far better to attempt to instill values and an education than to slap them on the wrist and tell them "don't do that" time and time again. They learn nothing from this other than there are not consequences for their actions.

[donroc]

And whatever happened to the "crack babies" and is there a study that followed them?

[icerose]

I know a woman who teaches in a juvenile detention facility. She gets hard core kids, all with a history of drug abuse/alcoholism/violence and 99.9 percent of these kids come from homes where these issues are present in their parents and their communities. The funny thing is that (after the initial adjustment) most of these kids love being there because they are in an environment where there is structure, and where the workers/teachers care about each one individually. These kids have literally never had anyone care if they are eating enough or if they are clean or how they are emotionally - or even to care enough to enforce the right behaviour. She said that kids actually cry when they have to leave because "jail" was the best home they have ever had...

Around here this has been the biggest problem with the local kids.

The number of troubled kids is sharply rising and 99.99% of the time its because of the parents, or lack there of.

It's sad and extremely tragic.

Those kids who don't want to go back shouldn't be forced, I think they should have a place for them to go where they don't have to go back to the chaos and the pain. It's really sad. While these kids are in these places their parents, if it is a problem home, should be going through a parent boot camp of their own.

[small axe]

Originally Posted by small axe http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2256895#post2256895)
tell me they got the idea off a video game that they learned to play in a Mormon compound, c'mon ... c'mon ...



Mormons don't have compounds so I have no idea what you're talking about.


I thought they were raiding some Mormon off-shoot sect's 'compound' on TV the other day.

If they call it a 'compound' that sounds dramatic and better and more cultish than 'yep, we got an imaginary phone call from an imaginary underage victim ... so we kicked down some reg'lar folks' doors and dragged away some kids.'

We wanted to use tanks too, but with the price of gas ...

They had kool-aid in the fridge, too. And then we noticed the exact same sort of kool-aid on America's grocery store shelves! Hence: cult terrorism threatens America's groceries!

But if Mormon's don't have 'compounds' ... my bad. I stand corrected.

[Cranky]

Originally Posted by small axe http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2256895#post2256895)
tell me they got the idea off a video game that they learned to play in a Mormon compound, c'mon ... c'mon ...




I thought they were raiding some Mormon off-shoot sect's 'compound' on TV the other day.

If they call it a 'compound' that sounds dramatic and better and more cultish than 'yep, we got an imaginary phone call from an imaginary underage victim ... so we kicked down some reg'lar folks' doors and dragged away some kids.'

We wanted to use tanks too, but with the price of gas ...

They had kool-aid in the fridge, too. And then we noticed the exact same sort of kool-aid on America's grocery store shelves! Hence: cult terrorism threatens America's groceries!

But if Mormon's don't have 'compounds' ... my bad. I stand corrected.

You were corrected, whether that fit with your sarcastic reply or not. And besides, what does this have to do with the OP, anyway?

[icerose]

Originally Posted by small axe http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2256895#post2256895)
tell me they got the idea off a video game that they learned to play in a Mormon compound, c'mon ... c'mon ...




I thought they were raiding some Mormon off-shoot sect's 'compound' on TV the other day.

If they call it a 'compound' that sounds dramatic and better and more cultish than 'yep, we got an imaginary phone call from an imaginary underage victim ... so we kicked down some reg'lar folks' doors and dragged away some kids.'

We wanted to use tanks too, but with the price of gas ...

They had kool-aid in the fridge, too. And then we noticed the exact same sort of kool-aid on America's grocery store shelves! Hence: cult terrorism threatens America's groceries!

But if Mormon's don't have 'compounds' ... my bad. I stand corrected.

That was the FLDS that broke off more than 100 years ago and has fundamentally NOTHING in common with the LDS church.

Also that was involved in another thread and I see no reason to drag it here.

Mormons do not have compounds. Period. We don't practice polygamy. We don't brainwash or threaten our members.

Your statement is like saying "Must be something those Protestant girls learned in their convent." Protestants don't have convents. Mormons don't have compounds, besides I thought the topic was about teaching and voilence in schools and kids.