by Joe Kirkpatrick

I just read where a New Jersey judge ordered that a teacher should lose her tenured job over making the following remark on Facebook about her 1st grade class: "I am a warden for future criminals."

Evidently, that judge has not spent a day in a  public school. Let's compare the authority of that judge vs. the authority of a classroom teacher. When that judge is holding court and someone in the courtroom is misbehaving, what does he do? First he tells them to stop, and if the person continues, he orders the court officer to arrest them and take them to jail. When a child in the classroom is disruptive, what does the teacher do? They tell the child to stop, and if the child continues, they give them a demerit. If the child then continues to misbehave, they will erase the child's smiley face on the board. If the student still doesn't stop, they send the student to the principal's office. What happens there? The principal talks to the student about how they should not misbehave, and if that doesn't work, the principal will suspend them and send them home. Who wins?! The disruptive child because they did not care anything about being at school in the first place. Why do they not want to be at school? Because more than likely, their parent (or parents if both of their parents are actually still together) could really care less if their child is in school as well.

I had some really bad renters in one of my "slum lord" properties I used to own. We nicknamed the mother "breathless." Why "breathless?" Because she was so sorry, she wasted good air breathing. One day she came in my office, and said, "You know who won that judge's race yesterday?" I told her Daniel Swafford had been elected judge, and she replied, "Good! - 'Cause I don't like that Hoffer guy 'cause he talked down to us." I asked why he talked down to them, and she replied, "'Cause we didn't have the kids in school." This woman and her husband drew every kind of check imaginable from the government. They were not disabled, just lazy and worthless. Why would they not be taking their children to school? Why should they? They are doing fine with no education, why can't their children do just as well? Did you know 47% of all Americans now draw some type of assistance check? 31 million children in the United States are now on free lunch. I have to ask what percentage of parents who sign their children up for free lunch smoke?

That judge in New Jersey needs to go take care of a first grade class by himself for a week, and have to follow the discipline mandates set forth by the local school system. After that week, instead of ordering the teacher fired, he might just order she be given the same power to run her classroom that he has in the courtroom!

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