The cell phone ban in the Milwaukee Public Schools may have helped cut back on violence, but it hasn't eliminated the problem altogether.
Let me rephrase that. It hasn't eliminated the problem of violence anywhere near enough.
It seems that students aren't following the rules on cell phones. (There's a shock.)
So the mayhem continues.
Incidents yesterday at a Milwaukee Public School recall a brawl in January at Bradley Tech High School. Thug students were fighting and called thug adults to join them.
MPS policy does not allow cell phones in school settings, but they're everywhere and often backed by parents so the rule is hard to enforce.
"We're overwhelmed by this. We're going to try at Bradley Tech. We sent letters home to the parents," Pochowski told 12 News' Portia Young.
The letters went out last week after a fight at Bradley Tech turned into a brawl because, according to MPS, some girls who were fighting used their phones to call for backup.
Pachowski said cell phone calls invited three carloads of outsiders to the fight.
"For those responsible persons, cell phones are not a problem. It's those irresponsible people, those students who call their family members who then call other family members, and have the audacity to come into a school," Pochowski said.
When the fists stopped flying, six teens and five adults were cited. Now MPS is cracking down on all cell phones, but so far only at Bradley Tech.
It's amazing that fighting thug kids actually call members of their thug families to school to assist, and they show up!
Odds are those same family members don't come to school when there are parent-teacher conferences or other school-related events.
Yesterday, Hamilton High School was the scene of several violent disturbances.
One fight involved a carload of thug adults being called in to serve as reinforcements. Another matter involved a thug parent in search of a particular student, intending to "settle the score."
Hamilton High School in Milwaukee was placed on lockdown Wednesday afternoon following a series of fights involving students and adults.
No one was injured in the disturbances, which began around 1 p.m. when an irate parent showed up at the school demanding to see a specific student to "settle the score," said Roseann St. Aubin, Milwaukee Public Schools' spokeswoman.
Police responded to deal with the parent and about the time they arrived, two male students began fighting in an unrelated matter.
About a dozen students joined in the fight, which school safety aides and police were able to break up, St. Aubin said. At that point the school went on lockdown, keeping students in classrooms.
At the same time, a carload of adults arrived at Hamilton and started fighting with students involved in the earlier fight. They may have been summoned by a student's cell phone, St. Aubin said.
Police were still tallying arrest totals but said between six and eight students and two or three adults were in custody.
What utter chaos!
It's extremely troubling that adults are contributing to the problems by participating in the violence, making matters worse.
This practice of high school students calling in adults to join in fights is just so weird. It speaks to how incredibly dysfunctional Milwaukee is.
Is it any wonder that the Milwaukee Public Schools are so out of control? Clearly, the problems run deep, with roots in the community at large.
When it comes to problems with kids at school or outside of school, I often find myself asking, "Where are the parents?"
We know where they are, at least some of them. They're active participants in Milwaukee's thug culture.
What a complete mess!
Now where are those flexible handcuffs?
2 comments:
I feel that you should be ashamed calling the kids that were in the fights "Thugs". I went to Bradley Tech when the fights were going on. You don't know anything about these kids so you are WRONG!!!
You've got to be kidding.
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