Our county schools have a paid tip line...students turn each other in.

[madfloridian]

I just learned about it recently, as I am retired as a teacher. It has been common knowledge among school personnel who have lauded it
There are certain amounts they get paid for various tips, such as a little for cigarettes, a lot for hard drugs.

Do other communities have this in their schools and just not know it? I did not know it until a paper used it as the question of the day.

I think this is wrong.

[JHB]

1. Wrong & Ripe for abuse

Need a few bucks? Call in a "tip" on some dork you don't like the look of! Or if you don't need the money, have fun by pretending to be someone else so you can rat out a pest AND give another one the "snitch" rep! Try it today!

[Heddi]

2. They had this when I was in high-school

(1990-1994). You could call an "anonymous" tip line and turn people in for drugs and guns and to notify officials of impending big fights (you know--the once a year everyone gets their ass kicked type of things that happen at high-schools).

I believe the rewards were:

$50 for drugs
$50 for fights
$100 for guns

I never called in, mainly because all my friends were druggies (not selling at school though, just smoking pot and taking acid during art-class), and not just that, but in order to get the reward, you had to give your name and address and phone number and they'd send you the check.

THat just seemed to take the "anonymous" out of "anonymous tip line".

I did know a couple of kids who called in bogus reports of guns and drugs. They were generally shitheads who wanted their enemies to be taken down, and one of them actually planted some weed in another kids locker so he could get the $50 bucks (although I'm sure the cost of the amout he planted came close to $50 bucks, so it seems that he just broke even). He got his $50 reward and BRAGGED about it at school.

Once the friends of the boy who was arrested, sent to juvie, and pretty much had his life ruined over this debachle heard about the braggart, well, they just made his life miserable. Very miserable. I think the kid ended up dropping out later that year and going to a new school b/c he couldn't take the beatings and harassemnt and constantly being called a SELLOUT NARC!

I think it's a bad idea too.

It gives kids reason to lie. It does nothing to foster an environment of learning in school, and if anything teaches kids to spy on each other and trust no one.

What's next--a tip line for kids who criticize their school? who don't like certain teachers? Who protest against the war? Who say unamerican things in the presence of others? Who curse too much or wear ugly clothes?

[Must_B_Free]

13. "taking acid during art-class"

must have been a long class...

[Heddi]

14. one day a week

we had a day-long art class. It was for the gifted students because we were going bald from pulling our hair out in the mind-numbingly boring AP classes that were really CP classes but with more Xerox copies handed out :)

[NoPasaran]

3. Yikes!

Nobody likes squealers!

[donco6]

4. It's required by federal law.

Part of NCLB - you have to have some form of anonymous reporting mechanism in place in your school district.

We pay for a service that's answered 24 hours, and yes, we get those stupid "tattletale" calls, too. IMO, it's a waste of money. But what can we do? I'm in Colorado, the land of Columbine.

[DBoon]

5. Training for the PATRIOT Act

Teach 'em early to turn in their neighbors. Part of their civics lesson in today's America.

What goes on in high schools reflects what goes on in the adult world.

[tom_paine]

10. I agree, training for the New and Improved Imperial Amerika

George P. Caligula will be so overjoyed when he assumes the throne that the citizenry will have been prepared properly.

[pscot]

17. O' brave new world

that has such people in it.

[jokerman93]

6. In a similar vein

I saw Maury Pauvich on TV yesterday. His guest was some nameless clean-shaven, pink-faced private citizen-consumatron, who has taken it upon himself to launch his own campaign against immoral and illegal behavior in his community area.

He follows, video tapes, and busts local prostitutes and their johns, confronting them on tape about being married and cheating (for the johns), and pandering (for the prostitutes). His leverage is that he threatens to tell the employers and have the "bad people" fired. He does this in order to keep his "community" the way he and his neighbors want to keep it.

Apparently, such attitudes and behavior are not illegal, and are being represented now on popular daytime TV as a righteous and desirable form of community activism...

See? We won't need police much longer for anything but the nasty stuff. The moral thought police can handle the small stuff from here on out.

Snitching for the man is on the rise. AND...it's OK as long as its a moral act. We all have the right to keep the scofflaws and undesirables out of our neighborhoods and schools.

Intolerance and snitching always come as a set.

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. People love to "turn people in" to any entity they perceive

as an authority. It is a favorite sport even on this board, where TIPS programs are less popular than they are in the mainstream.

When there is money involved, that cranks it up to a whole nother level, as many proud owners of new SUVs in Afghanistan have gleefully noted.

[drb]

8. That'll work fine until someone starts...

...calling in tips on the school board members' kids - or the school board members themselves, for that matter. The "hot" line will "chill" rapidly thereafter.... ;)

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Jeez, do they have a paid suicide hotline?

I'd think that would be more important.

[Heddi]

11. No. Of course not. That would be addressing a serious problem

besides, kids who kill themselves are loners and outcasts of society. TOTALLY not important people like high school football players and cheerleaders, who have the ability to bring spirit and warmth to the entire school body, lead the school year after year into state championships, and most importantly, deliver millions of dollars to the schools should the star runningback be picked up by a college or pro sports team.

Don't you know! It's the drugs that are important. In fact, some of those kids might not kill themselves if they were just arrested for smoking weed! Prison does WONDERS for the soul! </sarcasm>

Yes. Suicide tip lines, domestic violence tip lines, rape tip lines, sexual harassment tip lines, and bullying tip lines would do alot more to foster emotional stability in kids. Moreso than GUNS tip lines, or DRUG tip lines, or SOME KID WEARS UGLY CLOTHES AND LISTENS TO STUPID MUSIC AND DOESN'T FIT IN WITH THE COOL LEMMINGS THAT RUN THE SCHOOL SO HEY LETS PUT A TIP OUT ON THAT FAT FUCKER WHO WEARS GLASSES AND HAND ME DOWNS AND GETS STRAIGHT A's AND MAKES THE JOCKS LOOK BAD

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Just for the record

I was an outcast cheerleader. Seriously. The only unpopular cheerleader in the history of the sport. But I didn't care, I loved doing it so much it didn't matter what everyone said.

[truthspeaker]

15. got pics? ;)

And are you an Anarchist Cheerleader now?

[Cleita]

16. I went to Catholic school and the nuns always

encouraged the students to tell on each other. We had our own code though that put tattlers on fellow classmates on the bottom of the food chain. If a classmate did tattle to the sister, he was shunned and worse sometimes by the rest of the class. So most of us would have let the nuns cut our tongue out first before telling on anyone.