Perspectives

MCJ Editorial

Educators, political and community leaders must find solutions to crisis that led to adoption of restraints

Though the NAACP, political leaders, community activists and a number of Black parents expressed outrage at a newly approved MPS policy to use flexible, plastic restraints on students whose behavior is considered dangerous to themselves or others, it may be a policy--alas--whose time has come.

The policy, which would still have to be OK’d by a revamped Milwaukee Public School Board after its newly elected members take office, won’t go into effect (if approved by the new board) until, it is believed, the next school year.

MPS security aides would be trained (presumably by Milwaukee police officers) to use the plastic restraints as a last resort for out-of-control students.

As we stated above, this is a policy that we must reluctantly back if the classrooms of our public schools are to remain places of learning and as a refuge of sorts for children who must deal at too young an age with the realities of life.

It is life’s realities--dysfunctional families, absentee fathers, physical and sexual abuse, the negative images in the media, drugs and crime--that is at the root of the surge in violence in our public schools.

We have heard stories of teachers attacked by students as they attempt to keep order and discipline in their classrooms.

One administrator in a private choice school has noticed an alarm shift in the attitudes and behavior of his students. So great is the shift that he must revamp his school’s entire curriculum in order to meet the challenge or risk losing control of his school.

The plastic restraints, however, must be seen as a temporary solution while educators, concerned parents, government and community leaders come together and examine how we got to this critical juncture. They can start by seriously addressing the aforementioned realities of life for today’s public school student.

If these entities truly address the problem and come up with solutions to overcome the negative societal forces bombarding our children, then we will be able to do away with the restraints.