My husband and my two children were driving through our town
the other day, and came across a peculiar sight. A car (sedan) with the stickers touting the local high
school, a personalized license plate and five teenage girls was driving down a main road. As they drove down the street, one of
them popped up through the sunroof (while the car was moving), at least
two were leaning out of the windows, and all of them, including the driver were
raising their middle fingers, screaming “Fuck You!” to the people they passed,
many of those people being children walking home from school.
Now, my husband and I are both teachers, and believe me when
I say that we spend more than a fair share of our day listening to language of
teenagers. I believe that many
people would be shocked and appalled by the language and actions that teenagers
display on a high-school campus.
For those of you who are now saying, “I can only imagine!”, there must
be a fair number of you who are saying, “My child would never
talk/do/act/strut/throw themselves at the opposite sex like that!” I know this because over the course of
my career, I have received many a letter from a parent appalled that I would
allow students onstage to use the word “asshole” (in the award winning play
Proof, by the way, after the duo had placed with that scene at a state
festival) or even say the word “gay” or refer to a gay character. But, I digress.
So, my husband, still with his teacher hat on, and my two
children in the car who are watching this display of teenage-girl peacock-like
behavior, takes a picture of the little darlings on his phone, and posts it on
Facebook, to see if anyone knew who it was.
Friends on Facebook suggested posting it on a page dedicated
to the goings-on in our town, so the husband did. It was approved and posted, and a shitstorm erupted. Our friends, and many of the people who
responded to the post had the same mind-set as we did, “That kid needs to be
dealt with. There are consequences
for your actions, I hope they find her.” However, like the letter writers saying that I’m destroying
today’s youth by exposing them to curse words, there were people who were
incensed that Thomas had put that up.
I guess the picture, and the car (easily identifiable by the
vanity plates) was seen by the parents.
Within a few hours, my husband actually had a friend of ours call him
and ask him to take the post down.
They knew this kid, this family, and said “it’s a personal matter.” Oh
yeah, and then the step-mom or dad’s girlfriend or whoever she was, messaged my
husband asking him to take the post down.
It’s a good thing that this happened to my husband and not
to me, because when I heard that, I erupted.
When I was a kid, and I got in trouble at school, I was
terrified. I was terrified because
I knew that it was going to be 100000000000 worse when I got home. Today, when I talk about a kid’s
behavior or other infraction, it often becomes MY (the teacher’s) fault. My son would never have cheated, what
proof do you have? My daughter
would never talk to anyone that way….blah, blah, blah.
There are no consequences.
Now granted, sources say that this girl is in big trouble
and got her car taken away from her, but we don’t know these people.
I DO know that if I had done that, my ass would be walking
everywhere, which would be ok, because I’d be bruised and battered and sitting
down would probably be uncomfortable anyway.
I was just surprised at how many people were upset about
this girl and her friends being called out on her undeniably crappy behavior
and choices while on a public street, during the day, in front of
children. I’m sorry if you are
having a bad day, but learn your audience. You choose to act like an ass in public, then don't get mad at the people who call you out on it.
I am also pretty happy about the fact that we seem to know
lots of people who share similar ideologies with us, and that maybe our
children won’t behave like this.
But…if they do, I would hope that someone would tell me so that I can
make sure that they would be lucky to ever see the light of day again.
