The Horror.
In Cincinnati, Ohio, a first-grader at Our Lady of Lourdes school, just six-years old, was pretending to be a Power Ranger during recess, and “shot” another student with an imaginary bow and arrow. Principal Joe Crachiolo suspended the 6-year-old student for three days.
Denying the parents’ pleas to reconsider, Crachiolo sent a letter home to parents stating in part:
“I have no tolerance for any real, pretend, or imitated violence. The punishment is an out of school suspension.”
No wonder, if they encounter this kind of doctrinaire extremism, cruelty and stupidity from adult authority figures beginning so early in life, college students are quick to treat college administrators as disposable and useless. No wonder, if they witness this kind of “no-tolerance” excess as a remedy for real violence, they grow up to believe that anything they fear or oppose is best handled with blunt and crude remedies, and respect for others be damned. No wonder they want to punish other students for making them feel “unsafe” with mere words.
“I think he’s a good principal. I just think a bad decision was made,” Matthew Miele, the child’s father, said.
No, sir, he is NOT a “good principal.” Good principals don’t abuse their power, and abuse children in the process. Good principals don’t punish children for harmless make-believe, and good parents don’t let them warp and brutalize their child by doing so. It is flaccid, timid, passive parents like the Miele’s that make abusive principals like Joe Crachiolo possible.
I’ve wearied of posting about these incidents.There is nothing new to say, and it seems like the societal reaction is to just roll eyes and let these incompetent educators just go their merry, destructive way, hurting kids while pumping up their egos by bullying children for being children.
Parents have to stop this. That’s their duty. They need to show no tolerance. If this happened to my son, I would be calling every single parent, bombarding the local papers with letters, and filibustering the school and the Church that oversees it. I may not be able to get the idiot principal dismissed, but I would sure make his life hell for a while, and I would also make sure that as many parents of potential students heard the tale about the child punished for having an imagination. I’m a pretty persuasive guy; I think I would recruit some allies. Adults are better at protests than kids, most of the time. For one thing, they tend to be smarter. I think I could arrange a public forum, and I am certain that I could make someone like Joe Crachiolo look like the utter ass that he is.
When it was all over, I’d change schools and school districts, win or lose. I could not trust a system that allowed such a dim-bulb fanatic to oversee the education of any children, not just mine.
[ Full disclosure: my wife and I sent our son to a Catholic school for the 8th Grade. We pulled him out after Christmas.]
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Facts: KFOR
Ethics Alarms 
“I have no tolerance for any real, pretend, or imitated violence.”
Authentic frontier gibberish.
[Okay, satire may be the last refuge of, I don’t know … people like me? But it sure helps. I love the phrase’s echoes of Clemens (who spent much of his life in suburban Connecticut). I think it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said “Turn to the joke.” It sure helps.]
Rarit!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I needed a good laugh. I love it.
That one got me just right.
“Don’t anybody move or I’ll shoot the nigger!!”
I can only imagine how that worthy principal would have handled THAT!
Love the poll on the bottom of the article.
Do you think the boy deserved a three-day suspension?
1. Yes, violence of any kind should not be tolerated at school.
2. No, I think the punishment was a little extreme.
3. I’m not sure.
A “little” extreme? Especially given the strength of question 1?
Also, what kind of teacher reports this?
The kind of teacher who gets promoted to Principal?
My real answer is: a teacher who hates children…
Time to share a more positive story.
My 5 year-old (kindergartner) is a very sweet girl, but she has a strong personality. She responds fiercely to any situation — whether it is hugging a child who is sad, “helping” a child with his or her work, etc. Last week, the class problem child (I hate using the word “bully” as she is only 5), picked up a rock and threw it at my child. My child responded by picking up a larger rock and chucking it at her head. Thankfully, she is only 5 and missed her target — she only managed to spill the other girl’s milk.
The result? An email home from the teachers explaining what had happened and stressing that my child was not the instigator and not the problem. They asked us to please just have a conversation with her about asking teachers for help instead of throwing rocks.
Of course, we’re in private school. In public school, she would have been suspended.
I think private schools do a much better job with situations like this. They are not so encumbered with state and district policies that play into the hands of pc administrators who mainly want their annual salary raises/bonuses and have lost their ability to care about kids.
Nice school. Congratulations.
Nice daughter as well.
Well, I hope so and thanks for the compliment. We’re happy that we are teaching her to stand up for herself and others, but she also needs to learn to not escalate situations or harm others. It’s a tough balance.
Your child was right, Beth. If those teachers think they can handle things like that better, then they ought to be better supervising those children; especially those who are known trouble makers. Then children won’t have to toss back rocks in self defense.
From the story above, it sounds like the boy in question was attending a private school. At least I hope no public school is called “Our Lady of Lourdes.” So obviously results can vary, no matter public or private.
True. My point is that this behavior is not tolerated at all in public schools. In private school,it is hit or miss.
“I have no tolerance for any real, pretend, or imitated violence.”
See – the problem with this “policy” is that it takes two people. When someone acts out in an imaginary fashion, like charades, someone else needs to interpret that communication and decide what it means. Sure, maybe this kid explained that he was playing power rangers and simulated shooting an arrow, but what if another kid was playing cupid and simulated shooting an arrow? The kid playing cupid would conduct the same action but because his story is different, he’d be making others fall in love. Is that “violence”? Would a cupid be suspended just the same? Or does the same act not invoke the same punishment depending on what the principal perceives? If it’s all based on perception, how can we assure that the principal doesn’t need a perception adjustment?
I don’t think we can make sure the principal gets an attitude adjustment. I think people like that need to be pointed and laughed at, as negative examples for the next ten generations.
You bet he’d be suspended if he’d been shooting a love arrow. Surely you know how violent and sexist Classical Greek Mythology is. It’s one big trigger warning. Think of the pain of people who have been turned into trees previously (“But I got over it.” Monty Python). The entire Western canon has been banned. Even the name “canon” is violent.
Hopefully, none of his faculty have ever said “I’d kill for a drink,” or “This workload is killing me.”
The principal should be paid in imaginary dollars then, since they see “real” and “pretend” as equivalent. I suggest monopoly money instead of a paycheck.
See,this is why we need a Mikado.