Ot: Muhs

[MU88]

Keep in mind at a school like MUHS (I too am a grad), you can, and very likely will, get kicked out for getting into a fist fight. I know of kids at Catholic schools where my kids have gone / are going (MUHS, DSHA, Pius) where a kid got into a fist fight in the hall and was never seen at the school again - booted out. Two kids found with weed on their person at school, never seen at the school again - booted out that day.
At many Catholic schools there is little to no tolerance for such actions, and they can kick you out at their discretion.

Did you know that it was discovered right before graduation last year that one of those fine boys at MUHS were selling hard drugs out of his locker? The punishment? According to my nephew and the other boys at graduation, he was not allowed to participate in graduation. The school evidently was going to mail him his diploma. I don't recall hearing anything about this in the news, did you? Did you hear of an arrest or that the boy was denied his diploma? I didn't. Surely, there would have been a very public lawsuit if the school denied him his diploma. Simply put, these issues are a lot more complicated many seem to appreciate. BTW, who was he selling to, the teachers?

Yes, the rules are stricter at MUHS and the other Catholic schools. Still, there is a lot more going on than most know about. I was Chairman of the Board of a Catholic high school. You would be amazed at the issues we had to confront. We had issues as serious as sexual assault, kidnapping, restraining orders and sodomy. You think expelling students involved with these kinds of issues would be easy. It's not.

I will say this. If the kids involved in this matter have had ongoing issues at the school, I would guess they will voluntarily withdraw and transfer to another school. Even if MUHS does decide to expel them, the kids will withdraw from school prior to any decision on the expulsion appeal. If the kids have no prior issues, I would suspect they will be suspended and receive some other punishment. MUHS could try "expel" them, for pr reasons, but I would like there chances on appeal. If they are going to lose the appeal, the school will let them withdraw. It is highly doubtful anyone will actually be expelled in the technical sense.

[mufan2003]

I also am a MUHS grad and was disappointed to hear this report. They should not be kicked out of school, but severely punished. I played soccer at MUHS with African-Americans and Hispanics, and the entire team got along great with each other. Can't say I witnessed racism during my 4 years there (maybe I missed it). What happened is not ok, but we all have witnessed people being picked on for various reasons.....weight, hair, looks, etc. Unfortunately, it is a part of life growing up.

It bothers me when stories like this have hints of being representative of all kids that have attended or do attend MUHS. How many kids were doing the taunting....a small clique of 1-3 people or 50 students? It makes a big difference. Just as Black Lives Matter, that chant "pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon" do not represent all Democrats or people on the left......certain people on the right that act stupidly and demean latinos or other minority groups are not representative of all people on the right or Republicans, or those who voted Trump.

[MU88]

I also am a MUHS grad and was disappointed to hear this report. They should not be kicked out of school, but severely punished. I played soccer at MUHS with African-Americans and Hispanics, and the entire team got along great with each other. Can't say I witnessed racism during my 4 years there (maybe I missed it). What happened is not ok, but we all have witnessed people being picked on for various reasons.....weight, hair, looks, etc. Unfortunately, it is a part of life growing up.

It bothers me when stories like this have hints of being representative of all kids that have attended or do attend MUHS. How many kids were doing the taunting....a small clique of 1-3 people or 50 students? It makes a big difference. Just as Black Lives Matter, that chant "pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon" do not represent all Democrats or people on the left......certain people on the right that act stupidly and demean latinos or other minority groups are not representative of all people on the right or Republicans, or those who voted Trump.

I agree completely. Most kids are good kids, no matter the race, school, religion or political beliefs. Even the best kids do stupid things every once in a while. I am all for punishing kids when they do something wrong, but the intent of the punishment in this situation should be to teach them a lesson so they don't repeat their actions again, not to potentially damage their future. This isn't a case of murder or assault. The kids did something ignorant and hurtful to their classmates. I think they would learn more from a year of Saturdays working at the UCC, than the school sticking some letter in their transcripts saying they are racist or kicking them out of school. If it comes with Sister Germane swatting them with a ruler, so much the better.

[Cooby Snacks]

I guess it just shows that our young people model their behavior on the words and actions of adults. What a shame! It will be interesting to see both the short-term impact and the long-term consequences of this election.

That's one of the scariest parts of where this election and the degradation of civil discourse has taken us. Policy/political differences aside, a man who spent a big chunk of his campaign lobbing questionable language around race/gender/creed won the presidential election. To me, this at best signals a tacit approval that the proliferation of this kind of talk is OK.

And this isn't exclusive to MUHS--there are reports from all over the country of a similar nature over the past few days. Maybe it's always been there, but we're certainly putting a magnifying glass to it in the context of the election results.

A stern punishment is warranted here--but I agree with those who have posed this as a teachable moment...community work could be a real wake-up call for these kids.

[Goose85]

Unfortunately there are reports of a lot of this type of thing across the country. Hopefully isolated, but seems from kids on a school bus to colleges, there are those that think they now have some sort of justification to do things of this nature. Hope such behavior is short lived.

[MU/Panther]

Well, let's hope that teacher at MUHS that put out that email to the Latinos or thought latino had a viewpoint that the teacher viewed all voted for Hillary, when some really supported Trump.

[79warrior]

They are kids. Come on. Stupid and offensive, yes. But, didn't you do stupid and offensive things when you were 16 or 17? Let's ruin there chance of attending the college of their dreams because they did something dumb. Give them a slap they think is huge (suspension, semester of detention, etc) and teach them why what they did was wrong. We, as a society, have to quit overreacting to everything.

Well ,the chief taunter and leader in stupid and offensive comments is now in the White House. So, i guess quite a few people agree with you.

[MU/Panther]

Let's move on people. This is not the forum we have designed.

[IWB]

Just a follow up. Spoke to a few MUHS students this weekend. While the incident was incredibly dumb, it was not widespread or a "group" like the news report made it out to be. It was two students. They were walking behind two other students, put Trump bumper stickers on their backpacks and said something pretty stupid. It was not "group" doing "these things", it was not repetitive bullying or anything like that.

So... when it was reported, MUHS immediately identified the two responsible and are dealing with their punishment. MUHS also held assemblies for each class individually (Frosh, Soph, Jr, Sr), and addressed the issue with the whole school. After that they addressed it in the classrooms and also formed a counselling group for anyone one to come to if they ever felt abused or harassed for these types of incidents.

It is not tolerated at MUHS, nor should it be tolerated at any other school.

Funny, Goo brought up the "fighting aspect". I recently spoke to a local police chief about this, he said a few years ago when MUHS expanded his friend, a former cop, was hired as the new director of security. He had his first meeting with school officials and asked where the problem areas were. They all looked confused. He said, "You know, the are where there stirs up the most amount of trouble, could be the cafeteria, a main hallway..." They still looked confused so he said, "Where do the fights break out?" One of the administrated said, "Oh...a couple of years ago there was a fight in the hallway on the 2nd floor." all of the administers nodded in agreement. The former cop responded with, "So, this job is mainly about 'perimeter security'?"

Yes 88, there can always be some problem kids in any school, but it does not happen often there.

[mufan2003]

Just a follow up. Spoke to a few MUHS students this weekend. While the incident was incredibly dumb, it was not widespread or a "group" like the news report made it out to be. It was two students. They were walking behind two other students, put Trump bumper stickers on their backpacks and said something pretty stupid. It was not "groups" doing "these things", it was not repetitive bullying or anything like that.

So... when it was reported, MUHS immediately identified the two responsible and are dealing with their punishment. MUHS also held assemblies for each class individually (Frosh, Soph, Jr, Sr), and addressed the issue with the whole school. After that they addressed it in the classrooms and also formed a counselling group for anyone one to come to if they ever felt abused or harassed for these types of incidents.

It is not tolerated at MUHS, nor should it be tolerated at any other school.

Funny, Goo brought up the "fighting aspect". I recently spoke to a local police chief about this, he said a few years ago when MUHS expanded his friend, a former cop, was hired as the new director of security. He had his first meeting with school officials and asked where the problem areas were. They all looked confused. He said, "You know, the area where the most amount of trouble occurs, could be the cafeteria, a main hallway..." They still looked confused so he said, "Where do the fights break out?" One of the administrated said, "Oh...a couple of years ago there was a fight in the hallway on the 2nd floor." all of the administers nodded in agreement. The former cop responded with, "So, this job is mainly about 'perimeter security'?"

Yes 88, there can always be some problem kids in any school, but it does not happen often there.

Thanks for the info Jim. I had heard 1 to 3 kids (sounds like 2). The way this story was being picked up, it sure sounded like it was many students.