Parents As Bullies? Not A Trend I Wish To See

Annie

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Nov 22, 2003
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http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=425751

Parents are new class of bullies
Schools see flurry of attacks on kids, staff
By SARAH CARR
[email protected]
Posted: May 20, 2006

Elizabeth Morgan charged into her son's first-grade classroom this month, authorities say, shouting to the teacher: "I am sick and tired of you picking on my son and lying about him."

With the help of her middle-school age daughter, Morgan then cornered the Parkview Elementary School teacher, according to a criminal complaint, and struck her several times in the face and body with a closed fist in front of the first-graders.

When Morgan charged in, a student rushed to a nearby classroom to get help for his teacher, according to authorities.

The first-grader declared: "It's time," using a signal arranged after previous run-ins between Morgan and the teacher.

This year, schools have witnessed a spate of violent episodes involving adults - particularly parents - causing violent disruptions.

In Hartland, a mother was cited for disorderly conduct after she was accused of verbally confronting a student at Hartland North Elementary School in front of his fourth-grade class. She believed the student had been bullying her son. In West Allis, 36-year-old Serena Kelley was charged with battery this spring on allegations of punching a student just outside Frank Lloyd Wright Middle School, according to a criminal complaint.

And in the last couple weeks, several Milwaukee adults were issued disorderly conduct citations for disruptions in schools. At Morse Middle School, a parent brought her daughter to school and encouraged her to fight another student, according to an account of the incident sent out to the School Board. She also caused a disruption in the hallway. The same morning, police arrested a woman who was verbally abusive to a student at the Milwaukee Academy of Aviation, Science & Technology.

"The schools and administrators are seeing more violent parents," said Pete Pochowski, director of security for MPS, who noted that in the first seven weeks of the school year alone, there were reports of 16 outsiders causing disruptions in MPS schools. The district doesn't keep annual figures on how many parents incite verbal or physical confrontations in the schools, so a statistical comparison with past years was not possible.

"We've been watching this trend over the last couple of years. But it all came to a head this school year."

Patrick Thome, the principal of the Hartland school, said the mother "felt like her child was being bullied and emotion got the better of her."

A parent confronting another student "was not something I had experienced before," he added.

"I wish I had some sort of explanation for it."

Morgan was upset after her son received a one-day suspension from his teacher, Merele Mitz, according to the complaint. Morgan pleaded not guilty at a preliminary hearing Wednesday, and her lawyer says she denies the allegations.

When Morgan showed up in the classroom to protest the suspension, Mitz tried to calm Morgan down by agreeing with her, but Morgan threatened Mitz, saying to her, "I'll get your stinky ass," and began hitting her, the complaint says.

Kindergarten teacher Katie Krumins, who came when she heard the disruption from the hallway, told Morgan, "Honey, you need to stop."

But, the complaint says, Morgan turned to her, arms outstretched - pointing to her chest - and said: "Do you want a piece of this?" She threw Krumins against a cabinet and resumed hitting Mitz, the complaint says.

Two male teachers got between Morgan and Mitz, and Morgan went out into the hallway, where she encountered the school principal and a principal supervisor for the district. She pushed the supervisor, causing her to fall on top of a student, who began to cry, according to the complaint. A classroom of first-graders at Parkview Elementary School watched the entire incident from their desks. A group of kindergartners saw much of it from the hallway.

Morgan has been charged with battery to two school district employees, Mitz and Yvonne Hopgood, the principal supervisor.

In response to a surge in verbally and physically violent incidents involving adults in the schools, MPS took the unusual step of creating a "notice of no trespassing" letter that principals can send to parents and other adults who have caused problems in the schools. Pochowski said the city attorney's office was starting to feel swamped this winter by MPS principals asking for restraining orders, and worked to tailor the letter for the school district in January.

"I guess you could call it temporary restraining order lite," said Pochowski, who noted that it doesn't carry any authority under state law, only municipal ordinances. "I've heard several principals say, 'I've got three or four out now,' " Pochowski said.

When asked why schools might be having more problems with adults, Pochowski, who also serves on the city's homicide review committee, said, "People are less tolerant of each other than they used to be. What used to be a fistfight in an alley behind a bar is now a gunshot."

And for some parents, "there just doesn't seem to be an acceptance when a teacher says, 'Well, your child is not doing well,' or whatever. In some cases, we've had adults come on school buses or into classrooms and attack a child that was involved in a fight with their child the day before. That's unprecedented. We've never heard of that before."
Students are victims, too

The Milwaukee County district attorney's office handled seven charges of battery against school district employees since January. Three were felonies and three were misdemeanors. One was dropped.

In other cases, though, the victim is a student. In West Allis, Serena Kelley was charged six weeks ago with battery of a 14-year-old boy. According to the criminal complaint, she walked up to the student while he stood with some friends in front of the school.

The complaint says Kelley asked, "Why are you messing me with my kid, punk?" She then pushed the boy against a railing and punched him with a closed fist in the left side of his face, threatening: "If you ever go near my kid again, I will kill you."

Kelley, who also pleaded not guilty, did not return a call seeking comment.

Yvonne Bell-Gooden, a clinical psychotherapist who works with children and adults at Milwaukee Health Services, said a complicated mixture of economic, family and community stresses could be fueling confrontations in schools.

She said that in addition to sending the wrong message about conflict resolution, violent parents can prompt children to question whether their schools are safe.

"The goal should be to make them feel comfortable and help them understand this doesn't naturally occur and it is a safe environment," Bell-Gooden said. "As a community, if this is a problem that is becoming prevalent, we need to problem solve about where the problem is stemming from, and why this is happening."

In the Parkview case, Hopgood, the principal supervisor, tried to block the hall because there were so many children watching the scene unfold, according to her testimony in the complaint. Then she tried to calm the distraught, angry parent. But Morgan kept pushing Hopgood's hands back.

"This violates what we are trying to do," Pochowski said. "Our schools want parents to be in those buildings - but to help us."
 
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Parent of the Year
 
mom4 said:
Could it possibly be that, in this post-Christian nation, the virtue of self-control is sadly lacking?

Well I'm grateful I haven't seen those types of behavior. I have seen parents signing failed test papers about twice a week, signing and returning notes of missed homework, that feel justified in coming in a screaming about an 'F' at mid-terms, eventually calm down and claim that their child is 'really going to get their work done from here in out; only to be repeated after one or two days, result in an 'F' on the report card, where we go through the same scenario again. :coffee3:

I think part of it are parents that want to avoid confrontations and enforcing limits/restrictions on their children. I've had parents cry, that their child claims their homework was completed at school and they can't get them to bed until 2 a.m., because they are online or watching t.v. When I suggest they remove those privileges or at least remove them from the child's bedroom, 'They'll get angry.' Who wouldn't be surprised if the kid ends up abusing the parent down the road, if they aren't already? :shocked:
 
To mom 4:
I disagree with the fact that one has to be christian to have self control. In fact, there are many christians that I have seen that have no self control and actually go around and attack others for being different. I would have to say that many parents now are too easy on their children. My dad is a good example, he does not discipline my little sister very well and she is a spoiled brat. I can see her in ten years being a complete trashy bitch.
 
cslaughlin13 said:
To mom 4:
I disagree with the fact that one has to be christian to have self control. In fact, there are many christians that I have seen that have no self control and actually go around and attack others for being different. I would have to say that many parents now are too easy on their children. My dad is a good example, he does not discipline my little sister very well and she is a spoiled brat. I can see her in ten years being a complete trashy bitch.

csl:
In no way did I mean to claim that one must be a Christian to possess self-control. IMO, No1tovote4 is an excellent example of a man who seems very self-controlled, but is not a Christian.

Even when the US was considered a Christian nation, not every person in the US was a Christian. But the general trends included Christian values, of which, self-control is a biggie. In this post-Christian era, self-indulgence seems much more en vogue than self-control.

I agree; I have seen people who claim to be Christians, yet who act very differently from the lifestyle that Jesus illustrated. And NO ONE, even a devoted Christian will live out the lifestyle perfectly.

It does seem as though many parents are too easy on, even afraid of their children these days. I'm probably not strict enough with my own kids, at least not anywhere near as strict as my grandparents were on my father. And it is made even more difficult because society is often split when it comes to the concept of discipline. Someone very close to me was actually reported to the police for taking her son into the bathroom at a store and lecturing him about touching merchandise. The woman who reported her considered it "abusive" to speak to a child that way, and taking him into the bathroom was such a presumption! Why, she might have been spanking him in there! :rolleyes: People are very influenced by those around them, and when the culture at large becomes more permissive, parents may tend to doubt even their own convictions in disciplining their children. Very different from 100 years ago, when teachers spanked kids at school without asking the parents' permission, and the parents would be angry at the child for whatever he did to make that necessary. When Christianity formed a bond of common values, there was much less confusion about right and wrong, even among those who did not practice the faith.
 
When my dad was in fourth grade, he had a coughing fit (he and I both share bronchial asthma, so it sounds like a dog barking unfortuneatly) and the teacher thought he was faking it, so he got in trouble. My grandmother confronted the teacher's face with a frying pan. He was never picked on by the teacher again o.o
 
What I see is an out of control, liberal school system. A system where more and more of the parents are left out of the decision loop as to what can and will be taught to your kids. And if you don't send your kids to school, you're in violation of the law. So now that parents are fighting mad, the schools want to not only be able to teach, preach, and do as they please with your kids, don't you dare show up and say or do anything about it, or you'll be breaking the law for doing that too.

One answer... home school.
 
This lady sounds like a psycho.

When Morgan showed up in the classroom to protest the suspension, Mitz tried to calm Morgan down by agreeing with her, but Morgan threatened Mitz, saying to her, "I'll get your stinky ass," and began hitting her, the complaint says.

Kindergarten teacher Katie Krumins, who came when she heard the disruption from the hallway, told Morgan, "Honey, you need to stop."

But, the complaint says, Morgan turned to her, arms outstretched - pointing to her chest - and said: "Do you want a piece of this?" She threw Krumins against a cabinet and resumed hitting Mitz, the complaint says.

I wonder if she is married? If so I feel for her husband

Parent of the Year

Yeah because charging into a classroom of 1st graders and beating up a couple teachers because you think the teacher is "picking on your kid" is a very adult way to go about things.

When I was younger I used to umpire girls aged 10-18 softball games to make a little extra money and I had to deal with asshole parents like this all the time. People who would flipout (and a couple times even got violent) because their kid stood there and ate strike 3 or didn't beat the ball to the bag. I have very little respect for those type of parents.

Anywho, this isn't a "new" trend. Its been happening ever since there have been children and it has jackall to do with "christian" values or the lack thereof.

Its just a bunch of parents who never grew up.
 
Heh, where is this Parkview Elementary School at? I went to an elementary school by the same name :p
 

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