When was the last time you toured an Arkansas public school?
It seems that in the wake of COVID-19, public schools have not returned to pre-COVID access to parents and grandparents. School campuses by all accounts remain in lockdown.
That's not the only thing occurring in Arkansas public schools.
Education has been front and center since Gov. Sarah Sanders took office and especially since she signed the LEARNS Act.
Rightly so, the public education system has our children from the age of five until kids are 18 years old. Public schools influence and help shape our children into who they become as adults. Education is, and should be, a big deal. The hot-button topics are plentiful from both sides of the political spectrum.
What you are not being told is what happens after the bell rings.
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Stay with me
Violence in schools is a reality; the problems are real. The Sheridan School District recently encountered a student with a firearm. Thankfully, the situation was mitigated swiftly without incident.
Sheridan's incident was nearly a media blackout — except for South Arkansas Reckoning. We reported the incident in hopes of increasing awareness for the community.
Suzi Parker
The lack of public awareness about the increase in violence in public schools is an unprecedented cause for alarm. The unpredictability of these abusive and outright violent situations is a total failure to our children.
When you hear about a fight at school, you likely remember how it was when you were a student. A punch here, a bite there, some hair pulling. Most times ending in a hand shake and a little more respect for our peers.
That’s not what’s happening today.
[Warning: The videos in this story are violent and disturbing. Due to the violent nature of these videos we will not publish the names of the school districts.]
That video was captured via cell phone.
So was this one.
South Arkansas Reckoning has been sent a lot more.
So I ask you: Will removing the cell phones from public schools change this behavior?
Parents, have you stopped to think about how public schools have changed even as recent as the early 2000s?
Changes to the classrooms of the ‘70s and ‘80s include the now-limited use, or no use at all, of corporal punishment, as generations before have termed it “the board of Education.” No, not the elected school board, but the paddle that has all but vanished from public schools. Has that made a positive impact?
Today’s violence inside some public schools resemble scenes from the movies depicting prison brawls and pure chaos.
That’s right, it’s happening right here in Arkansas, and the perfect image of the education system is taking precedent over the reality of the hostile environment that public education has become.
We do not take this story lightly. Bringing awareness to the severity of the situations inside public schools should be the job of any news outlet.
Is social media placing a target on cell phones?
Tik Tok is in the news daily. Politicians claim that the social media platform is a danger to our society.
In late April, President Joe Biden signed a bill giving TikTok's Chinese parent, ByteDance, 270 days to sell TikTok. Failure to do so would lead to significant consequences: TikTok would be prohibited from US app stores and from “internet hosting services” that support it.
In a recent letter to legislators and other governors, Sanders once again pointed to social media and children.
“In Arkansas, we passed the Social Media Safety Act, which requires parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts,” Sanders wrote. “States have also pursued legislation to protect kids from social media advertising, enacted online privacy protections for kids, and required mandatory social media safety features for kids. Unfortunately, Big Tech-supported interest groups have blocked many of these laws and policies.”
Even if Tik Tok vanishes, kids still have phones. Many schools have already banned cell phones. Apparently students are using cell phones as a tool for disrupting the education system. Who would’ve thought putting a pocket size computer into the hands of children could go so far to undermine the values of the education system? But here we are.
But with no apps on a phone, there's still a camera to show what is really happening in schools. It’s not uncommon to hear from parents weekly concerning “a fight” at their child's school. The cell phone camera often depicts a different perspective than what administrators claim the cameras inside the districts show.
Numerous parents have contacted South Arkansas Reckoning when administrators in their school denied them access to the footage from the districts’ cameras citing student privacy concerns. Often, those parents have obtained and shared cell phone video footage contradicting the allegations against their child.
The Real Truth
Arkansas’ public education system seems to have traded corporal punishment and other disciplinary measures for School Resource Officers aka SROs. That’s right. Every week in Arkansas children are facing criminal charges for behavior that lacked discipline — be it at home or after the bell rings. Lack of discipline often escalates to a crime.
Guess I better point out that the school shouldn’t be teaching our children how to act. That responsibility lies with the parents at home. But even well-mannered children get caught up in the trend of the day if they are in a free-for-all environment.
Now if you’re in your 30’s, 40’s and older this should be alarming. If you think back, you won’t likely remember your peers becoming criminals during the school day. Today it’s becoming increasingly the norm. Trading discipline for criminal charges is not in the best interest of children.
Maybe technology as whole is the culprit most to blame.
Hey, remember that super computer parents put in the hands of students, you know that cell phone?
The schools have done it, too.
Local school boards opted to purchase digital curriculum and issue a Chromebook or similar device to every student. Millions of tax dollars are spent in public schools for devices. Students are now dependent upon technology every second of the day. So are teachers.
Will banning a cell phone really change the violence we are witnessing in public schools?
Teachers blame students. Students retort that the teachers are staring at their phones as violence erupts. Teachers blame parents for not teaching kids proper behavior. Administrators blame both. The school board often, ultimately, deny anything is wrong at all and claim they have not heard anything about violence.
Videos don't lie, though.
If you know of situations like the videos in this article happening in your school district get involved. Attend your local board meetings. Email administrators at your school. Talk to your children about what is going on at school.
How much longer can the truth be hidden after the bell rings?
Shining a light on the things that no one else will touch seems to have become the calling of South Arkansas Reckoning.
The content of this story should be of great concern to every parent and tax paying citizen across the state.
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