George Maxey got scr*wed

I just want to say I can’t condone lying to the police. Educators should always strive to do the right thing by their students even if it is hard and even if they might not like it. With that being said I think I can understand why Maxey did what he did and that’s, the superintendent told him to.

Now the superintendent didn’t say let kids who steal get off, no he says things like handle incidents in house and have the police involved as little as possible. I can imagine principal Maxey at least partly thought he was just following orders but like another group who claimed the same thing, this can often have disastrous consequences.

The district isn’t concerned with doing what’s right, it is concerned with appearances. We pass kids along without the knowledge and the skills they need, a work ethic and discipline to be successful. We don’t want a log jam of overage children nor do we want to invest in summer school. Instead of educating children cajole teachers into passing them or use grade recovery to move them out. Instead of disciplining kids we brow beat teachers into accepting maladaptive learning environments. Instead of giving kids consequences we look the other way because we don’t want our numbers to look bad.

I know several teachers, the victims of assaults or batteries that have been told not to involve the police, have had their paper work lost, not given time off to take care of it, or had various obstacles put in their way. The district with Pratt-Dannals at the helm likes to boast how discipline is way up and how referrals, suspensions and police incidents are way down but the truth is a lot different and please don’t take my word for it, ask any teacher in a neighborhood high or middle school. Teachers and students are touched or threatened and Items are stole from teacher’s desks or from students book bags all the time and administrations yawn as they go through the motion trying to find the culprits not that much of a punishment happens if they do. Once the police were involved Maxeys fate was sealed but don't think similar incidents don't fly under the radar.

We say Maxey should have done the right thing but the sad thing, the very sad thing is I am not sure if he knew what the right thing to do was.