posted by Mike Madison at 8:22 AM /
Pittsburghers woke up this morning to front-page P-G coverage of a story that's been circulating Mt. Lebanon for several days: Some number of high school students, presumably boys, assembled and circulated a grotesque "list" of high school girls.
The weak-kneed response of the School District so far, especially as described in the paper, is almost as grotesque as the list itself. The Superintendent referred the matter to the Mt. Lebanon Police. Rightly, I think, the Department has concluded that this isn't a criminal problem. Instead, it's the District's problem. Among the District leaders quoted in the Post-Gazette, only Mark Hart seems to have a grasp of the seriousness of the issue and of the District's role.
Isn't anyone at the School District paying attention to what's going on these days on the Duke campus? When school leaders have their heads in the sand, first bad things happen, and then it gets worse. Failure to act strongly in this case -- that is, failure to exercise some *leadership* -- will have profound consequences later on. It won't be pretty.
Does the District have authority to act here? Of course it does. This doesn't need to get wrapped up in what constitutes "sexual harassment." It's bullying, plain and simple, and the District has to have a policy against bullying. Doesn't it?
And should the District act? Of course again.
Step one: Identify all of the students involved. The students know who is responsible for this. In all probability, parents do, too, or will soon. If necessary, bring every student in the school in for Q&A, starting with the seniors.
Step two: Punish them, and punish any adult employees of the District who had any knowledge that this was going on.
Step three: Immediately and publicly re-declare a zero-tolerance policy regarding bullying, at all ages and grade levels.
Step four: Initiate a comprehensive review of Mt. Lebanon's vaunted and nationally-recognized Character Education program, which now appears to be a complete failure.
I went to the District website this morning and did a search on the word "Character." Here's what I got back: "Search the MTLSD Web Sites for: character. Total Records Returned: 0. Your search did not produce any results."
Shameful.
UPDATE #1 (4/27): The Post-Gazette follows the story. Unfortunately, the story focuses more on the battle of the lawyers rather than on educational and ethical issues.
The Trib has an interesting story about an underappreciated aspect of this situation: Internet technology magnifies the effect of rumor and innuendo in ways that neither schools nor students really appreciate. A piece of paper that gets passed around doesn't cause harm on the scale of an email or website (or MySpace or facebook) that gets sent around. I asked my kids whether Mt. Lebanon High School offers any instruction in the *ethics* of technology. Answer: No.
UPDATE #2 (4/27): Just in case that it's not otherwise obvious from the format of this blog, this post represents my views alone. (The Comments represent the views of their respective authors.) To avoid any appearance of a possible conflict of interest, however, Josephine Posti, who is a member of the School Board, has withdrawn from her association with the blog as a whole. I thank Jo for her earlier contributions and wish her well in everything.
The weak-kneed response of the School District so far, especially as described in the paper, is almost as grotesque as the list itself. The Superintendent referred the matter to the Mt. Lebanon Police. Rightly, I think, the Department has concluded that this isn't a criminal problem. Instead, it's the District's problem. Among the District leaders quoted in the Post-Gazette, only Mark Hart seems to have a grasp of the seriousness of the issue and of the District's role.
Isn't anyone at the School District paying attention to what's going on these days on the Duke campus? When school leaders have their heads in the sand, first bad things happen, and then it gets worse. Failure to act strongly in this case -- that is, failure to exercise some *leadership* -- will have profound consequences later on. It won't be pretty.
Does the District have authority to act here? Of course it does. This doesn't need to get wrapped up in what constitutes "sexual harassment." It's bullying, plain and simple, and the District has to have a policy against bullying. Doesn't it?
And should the District act? Of course again.
Step one: Identify all of the students involved. The students know who is responsible for this. In all probability, parents do, too, or will soon. If necessary, bring every student in the school in for Q&A, starting with the seniors.
Step two: Punish them, and punish any adult employees of the District who had any knowledge that this was going on.
Step three: Immediately and publicly re-declare a zero-tolerance policy regarding bullying, at all ages and grade levels.
Step four: Initiate a comprehensive review of Mt. Lebanon's vaunted and nationally-recognized Character Education program, which now appears to be a complete failure.
I went to the District website this morning and did a search on the word "Character." Here's what I got back: "Search the MTLSD Web Sites for: character. Total Records Returned: 0. Your search did not produce any results."
Shameful.
UPDATE #1 (4/27): The Post-Gazette follows the story. Unfortunately, the story focuses more on the battle of the lawyers rather than on educational and ethical issues.
The Trib has an interesting story about an underappreciated aspect of this situation: Internet technology magnifies the effect of rumor and innuendo in ways that neither schools nor students really appreciate. A piece of paper that gets passed around doesn't cause harm on the scale of an email or website (or MySpace or facebook) that gets sent around. I asked my kids whether Mt. Lebanon High School offers any instruction in the *ethics* of technology. Answer: No.
UPDATE #2 (4/27): Just in case that it's not otherwise obvious from the format of this blog, this post represents my views alone. (The Comments represent the views of their respective authors.) To avoid any appearance of a possible conflict of interest, however, Josephine Posti, who is a member of the School Board, has withdrawn from her association with the blog as a whole. I thank Jo for her earlier contributions and wish her well in everything.
11 Comments:
This is reason 3,782 why I do not and will not send my children to Mt. Lebanon schools. We spend gobs of money in property taxes to fund academic achievement and do nothing to educate the person. Unfortunately, this in the not the first time that MtL High has been in the news for students behaving badly. We can blame the District in its failure, but the parents need to shoulder their share of the blame. Too many parents in Mt. Lebanon enable their children's boorish behavior and threaten the district with law suits if the district punishes their sweat, little, misunderstood rogue. The district cannot do squat if given the "boys will be boys" attitude of the parents.
The reason I send my kids to Catholic schools is that do receive a character education. The students are not perfect and things do happen, but the school has the ability and willingness to act to discipline problem children.
I completely agree with Mike's comments assessment of this situation, and his suggestions about what should be done; with one addition. If it is shown that any employees of the district were aware of this they should be repremanded (fired, but the Pa. unions won't let that happen) and the public should know who they are. Of course, the board and administration will hide behind their never-ending mantra - it's a personnel issue and we can't discuss it. I also agree with Anthony's statement that parents need to "shoulder their share of the blame", however if this is like other incidents in the past, they will be the first to threaten to sue the district.
Character education has not worked recently in Mt. Lebanon. My daughter was a student in the district from '93-'98 and we heard incredible stories.
Bottom line is that lists like the "top 25" encourages harassment. Harassment is illegal. Therefore...
While this "list" is horrible and I certainly agree that the perpetrators should be punished, and the administration did not respond in any kind of proper and timely manner (hoping it would go away I guess)... Doesn't anyone else think Mark Hart's response of "fire all the administrators" was over the top and unproductive? This "off with their heads" attitude simply inflames an already hot situation.
While these kids are guilty of poor taste, I think you need to lighten up. I am a recent transplant to the Mt. Lebo from Penn Hills (Yes, some natives do cross rivers!). I find it humorous that USC parents hire lawyers from the ACLU to battle for the IB program after the school board they elected to represent them discontinued it. And now in MTL we are ready to lynch these boys for being boys. In the PG article one father claimed the list was the equivalent to the "written rape" of his daughter. Really? Come on! I would be upset if it was my daughter too, but to compare a list to rape seems crazy to me. But then again, I'm sure if the students of MtL were subjected to a metal detector on the way into school everyday, they might have some perspective on this rather tame scandel.
Just last year, there was a kid who wrote a vulgar rap song about a fellow student outside of the school. After he was kicked out of school, he hired an ACLU lawyer who won him lots of money! If this list was written outside of school, the school district has no right to do anything. The MTLPD have said that there was no crime, so we need to drop it! These parents who brought this scandel to the press are just making us look like fools.
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The "boys will be boys" excuse and the "we did it, too, when we were in high school" excuse are just that -- excuses for ignorance and unacknowledged bias (at best) and misogyny and abuse (at worse). The truth is that the harm suffered by the women and girls on this list is real, and it is unjustifiable in any civilized society. Personally, from what I've read and heard so far, I don't see anything that should be reviewed in a courtroom, but I see plenty that should be reviewed in the principals' office and in parents' living rooms. (Mark Hart's call for firings may be over the top, but his outrage is palpable and welcome.) High school students who believe that they can get away with this sort of thing eventually come to believe that they can get away with much worse. The community should put a stop to it while it can.
I recently moved here, and plan to send my daughter to kindergarten here next year. I attended public schools in CT and VT for seven of my k-12 years, I spent the other years in private schools. I think bullying behavior is usually the worst problem at public school, and it the lack of institutional control that usually accompanies it. It's everywhere, and very damaging in many ways( low student productivity, safety, self esteem, etc.). I don't advocate super-strict speech codes, or other reactionary remedies. However, in any good school I've attended, character education was held up as the foundation for all other activities, making everything else possible. The purposeful formation of a well-rounded, morally sound child is the first step toward a generally productive and humane adult individual. This is the process that private prep schools specialize in and excel at, while public schools generally don't, for a complex set of reasons. Mostly, I have fouund that it's simply not a priority. I hope that isn't the case in
Mt. Lebabnon.
I think that it would be a shame if anyone took this episode as a reason to reject Mt. Lebanon High School or public education generally and to prefer private school as an alternative. Private schools suffer from this sort of behavior, too. (I know; I went to one myself, and I get reports from friends who have kids in private schools today.) The question for any educational setting, public or private, is the quality of the adult leadership.
Ironically earlier this week I came home and to my delight found my 2006 Mt. Lebanon alumni directory had been delivered. I spent the whole night pouring through it and feeling a very real sense of pride over where I went to high school, and the town itself (its not perfect but...)
I agree with all the statements about character education, about the lack of response from the district...maybe even look to the parents for some blame, but honestly I find my disappointment being toward the students. The young men (not boys...on NightTalk it was mentioned one was 18)who made the list, or passed the list around or voted. The few girls on the list who don't care or don't see the problem with being objectified in a sexual manner...one word, pathetic. Or the student(s) on the street interviewed in the media who just didn't seem to "get it" or were quick to blow it off as a big nothing. A student body who allowed the "tradition" of such a list for years (although this one was reported as being worse than other years). These aren't grade school kids, these are young adults with, one would hope, thinking heads. Heads developed in part by their lebo education but also by the home front, and their own ability to think critically about the world to be forming values on right, wrong, hurtful etc. This week's news demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of why objectifying a person(s) in such a base manner is wrong. Its pretty fundamental.
I have a toddler and I'm planning on moving back into the district for the schools. I won't let something like this change my mind about the schools or about pubic school in general but I won't take it for granted Mt. Lebanon is the same as when I went either (as if it were really any different). Actually its not Mt. Lebo, its the world today and the news of the week reflects the greater society outside the rolling hills of Mt. Lebo.
I will say I think the young men who were involved should be punished and not excused by "boys will be boys." More than anything, someone needs to explain adult life in the real world to them before they cost their future employer(s) tens of thousands of dollars or more in lawyer fees for EEO defense work!
It is DISGUSTING to me as an educator for the district (I am a substitute) that there are parents actually condoning these boys’ actions. These boys bullied and sexually harassed these girls! Plain and simple! Ranking women with an explicit point system!! It outrages me as an educator and a women that our society has deteriorated to the point that these actions are acceptable! At what point do we draw the line? Those of you that think this is acceptable are enabling these boys’ actions. You are telling them YES go objectify women, its ok! How do you not understand that these actions escalate! What happened to RESPECT?!?! There is a basic human regard that should be allotted to every person. These boys are NOT doing that. The only way they will learn is to be punished! Those who don't believe this are living in a fantasy world. Wake up and realize these boys are our neighbors. Would you really want one of them taking your daughter or sister out on a date?! Being alone with them? We know what they are thinking! These boys need to be punished, parents need to be held accountable and a message needs to be sent that this is unacceptable!
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