I swear, I didn’t believe I heard this right. There was an earlier story about a student who was punished for letting an asthmatic classmate use her inhaler, and I thought this was the same one. But no. Now my head is all over the place, and I am once again rejoicing at our decision to pull our son out of those dens of incompetence, abuse, indoctrination and confusion known as “the public schools.”
Anthony Ruelas, an eighth-grade student at Gateway Middle School in Killeen, Texas, watched as a classmate announced that she was having trouble breathing, gasped for about three minutes, and fell to the floor. The teacher emailed the school nurse, which is apparently the policy now. At least she didn’t sent a fax. Or a carrier pigeon.
Be still, my ticking head…
She ordered students to remain calm and stay in their seats, as they watched the girl struggle to breath like a goldfish out of its bowl.
Anthony, however, decided that his classmate needed immediate help, so he picked her up and carried her to the nurse’s office.
And was suspended from school for two days. School district superintendent John Craft did say in a statement that the district “applauds the efforts of students who act in good faith to assist others in times of need.”
I don’t even want to write about this very much; it makes my head hurt.
Fire the teacher, fire Craft, fire the school board, and find a way to educate our children that encourages initiative, compassion, courage and a sense of when authority needs to be defied.
Oh, I forgot: “We ain’t got time to wait for no email from the nurse,” a teacher’s report quotes Anthony as saying.
Perfect. The school can’t teach him to speak grammatical English, but it does want to make sure that he knows not to lift a finger when someone in in mortal peril right next to him.
KABOOM!*
Ethics Alarms 
Somehow – be it by the school’s Horrible Example, parental guidance, or innate nous – this young man (not a child) has learnt two very important things, ones I hope my own son has learnt too.
1. In medical emergencies, when seconds are precious and no help is coming, you help. With luck, you won’t do harm, and the odds are that you’ll do good if the situation’s obvious..
2. When to tell authorities to go jump in the lake. Respect for authority is the default, but on very, very rare occasions it is your duty as a human being to tell them (to use the vernacular) to sod off. Having the wisdom to do this when necessary, and only when necessary, is rare. It’s what makes Leaders.
It pains me to see the English language butchered. I really do speak Standard English, stilted though it may be. That’s only because that was the local dialect where I was born, in Berkshire, the Home Counties, midway between Windsor Castle and Oxford. Had I been born 50 miles away in any direction, my speech – and style of writing – would be quite different.
So Jack, much as I share your pain, I’m willing to ignore his linguistic atrocity, as his empathy, courage and wisdom set an example to both my son and myself. Priorities, basically.
Jack I don’t think we are talking about holding him to a high standard of civility, I think your talking about holding him to no standard. I know this is a minor point but the sheer stupidity of the the school health emergency procedures has been covered completely.
There is no standard when it comes to pure, atavistic, emotional, life and death situations for which there is no preparation or consideration possible and the individual is a child. A kid gets a text message that his father has been killed in a car carsh, and shouts out, “FUCK! NOOO!” and you really want to punish him? Values: empathy, compassion, fairness, reciprocity, kindness, perspective, proportion.
“A kid gets a text message that his father has been killed in a car carsh”
No, but I’d sure find out who texted him and give them a once over on common sense: Hey, idiot, try calling the school so we can pull this kid out of class and in a less public environment to give him the news.
That’s a tricky scenario to use, because in that example, the person doing the texting is a moron also lacking in: empathy, compassion, fairness, reciprocity, kindness, perspective, proportion..
You mean like the teacher who created the real scenario????
I figured that was without question.