Retiring principal: ‘It is harder for us to be nice to kids’

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

33. Great article!

I especially agree with the culture of zero tolerance.

The only part I take objection to is where the principal writes "The rapid-fire social media culture means that if we ever err on the side of mercy or charity, it will quickly be seized upon by those who are just looking for us to make a mistake."

I'm currently in high school, and will be graduating in a few weeks. What I have found at my school, and at others, is that with the emergence of social media, it has NOT been an outlet where schools are criticized for being too lenient or merciful, but just the opposite. Rather, I have found that it has been an outlet where schools are criticized for being too harsh or critical, with strict and sometimes ridiculous enforcement of "zero tolerance" rules, etc. I'll give you an example. Just yesterday was the 8th month anniversary of the day a girl at a neighboring school committed suicide. To commemorate the day, a student at our school (who knew the girl very well) wore a headband with her name on it. He used to wear it all the time right after she died, and nobody said anything to him about it being a violation of school rules or anything of that sort. However, yesterday, the guidance counselor coldly said to him "It's time, you need to move on", eluding for him to take off the headband. He quickly shared the story on Facebook, where he received much support. There were also instances where students were giving their opinions of teachers on social media sites. When the school found out about this, they were quick to falsely label it "libel" and threaten suspension.

Sometimes there are instances, maybe with cases of bullying, where a school is criticized by a parent of the bullied child for not doing enough, but from my personal experience of being in high school today, a lot of the harshness that is directed toward students is not done because the school is afraid to be lenient, but rather because there are some mean spirited people in positions of authority.