SCHOOLS AND UNDERCOVER COPS

I have read the responses to the question “Should schools use undercover cops?” (Speak Out, September 2004). I think undercover police can be employed under the right circumstances. The circumstances concern making the undercover program a collaboration between the police and the school administration, and providing mandatory training for the undercover cops. The policemen can work in the schools on a regular basis, establishing an assistance-type relationship with the students rather than a punitive one. An undercover approach can be supplemented with random sweeps of the school.

Implementing consistent punitive responses to infractions—expulsions, suspensions, detentions and the like—is absolutely necessary. The purpose of the school is unfettered learning and education. Having an undercover police officer in the school does not have to impede the existence of an interactive school community.

—Bob Shapiro
Andover, Mass.

This is probably no more than an effort to collar hardcore and would-be dealers in schools whom law enforcement see as easy targets for arrests. When administrators are confronted with a school problem—and it is a school problem because it takes place within school boundaries—then the incentive to resolve it must come from within the internal stakeholders (teachers, administrators, students, maintenance workers). There should be no problem that is bound to overwhelm a school environment that the stakeholders cannot manage to overcome.

Allowing law enforcement to pluck students from their environment signals that the school is perceived as an institution, not only by the school staff, but by the district superintendent, the one responsible for authorizing this move. By authorizing this drastic move, the school district places the external community under notice that it has relinquished its control of the school to the authority of law enforcement.

—Haazim Shareef
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Ten or so years ago when I taught elementary school, I would have agreed that it would have been a terrible thing to have police patrolling our school, undercover or not. That was 10 years ago. Now everything has changed.

During the past decade, there have been shootings at Columbine and other schools. These might have been avoided if they had undercover cops in the school system. Terrorism has now entered the picture. What happened in Russia—holding children hostage for political or religious reasons—now makes the presence of police in our schools the intelligent thing to do.

—Name withheld

THE MYTH OF THE LAZY STUDENT?

Is the lazy student a myth (Speak Out, October 2004)? No, it is a behavior propagated by lazy parents or guardians who think that giving their children everything they didn’t have growing up will somehow create a better environment for their children. Material rewards without personal responsibility creates children who believe that they will be rewarded for their effort regardless of how they perform at their job or in school. In the real world, life doesn’t work this way. Whether we talk about material rewards or advancement, bonuses or praise, the reward is tied to the success of the effort.

Parents who leave it up to the school alone to educate their children are failing their children. Waiting until parent-teacher conferences or report cards to find out if the children are doing all they should is dropping the ball. Children are not inherently lazy, they are taught to be lazy. If they believe that no one cares about their day-to-day efforts regarding school, they will stop trying. Laziness is a reflection of the parental involvement in a child’s life.

—Nancy Bissell
Irvington, N.Y.