Most of my readers know that – when I was younger – I worked two decades as a school teacher. My specialty was helping students classified as EH (emotionally handicapped), and SED (severely emotionally disturbed).

The key ideas in my opening paragraph are “teaching,” “helping,” and “students.” In other words, the point of school is to cultivate an environment where learning takes place, and where students have the opportunity to be encouraged, and to grow as whole people.

I mention this because there has been such a lot of on-line noise surrounding a recent video, the one featuring a school resource officer violently removing a student from her desk, slamming her to the ground, and dragging her across the room before placing her in handcuffs. (The man was being a bully, a conclusion that was affirmed when he returned to the classroom to arrest another student who had courageously spoken up to challenge his inappropriate conduct.)

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: When I was teaching we observed far too much of this kind of behavior. The bottom line was that school personnel who used violence as a routine intervention did so because they lacked actual, proven, classroom and behavior management skills. They didn’t employ these skills because they were – one or more: A) not properly trained; B) lazy; C) fundamentally unsuited for work with kids; D) unwilling to use proper techniques because “I know better….”

So the principal and I went away for training, and then we carefully taught essential practices that covered behavior management in general, crisis intervention, and how to appropriately respond to and prevent violence. This training (with annual refresher classes) not only includes precise protocols for restraint, take-downs, transportation, and removing a client from a room, but it is also taught in and utilized by many police departments.

REALLY??? I mention this in response to the disturbing nature of many comments I have read on social media (and these are the polite ones). “That officer should get a commendation – now she’ll think twice before she smarts off…” “If she’d have done what she was told this wouldn’t have happened…” “She deserved to be shook up – sure taught her a lesson…” “Disrespect a cop and that’s what you get…” “That officer needed to show the other kids how it is…” “If teachers didn’t have their hands tied it never would have gotten this far…”

It all sounds a lot like the justifications for violence we were getting when I was a teacher: “I gave him some carpet-therapy to make a point…” “She gave me the finger, what was I supposed to do?” “Students need to know that when I give an instruction the only option is compliance…” “Violence is the only language he understands – so we talked…”

I believe we are in a precarious position as a society when it comes to violence. When brute force is used to “control” any segment of the population (students… racial minorities… protestors…), then it is past time for some serious soul-searching.

And (as an aside but not really) I believe something similar is amiss when it comes to our response to crime. We incarcerate, we aggravate, we denigrate, we obfuscate, we marinate, we percolate, we perpetuate… – but more on that in another column….

Peace – DEREK