Well, they're at it again!

Last night, I saw a news report about a high school teacher who has been suspended for dressing up as a cheerleader and performing a cheer in front of her class.  Never mind that it was a it was during a school pride celebration. 

We have this video because it was recorded by a student with their cell phone.  In covering this story, the news also showed an incident, also recorded on a student's cell phone, of an enraged teacher being abusive toward a student who refused to stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance. 

We were informed that the first teacher was suspended but we were given no information whatsoever about the fate of the abusive teacher or the student who was abused.   

The question asked by the anchor reporting the story was whether or not schools should ban cell phones in the classroom. 

It strikes me that the school that would ban cell phones over the first incident is more concerned about the embarrassment of the possibility of the video of the teacher/cheerleader finding its way onto YouTube than they are about students spending classroom time on the phone. 

OR ...  are they far more concerned about protecting themselves from litigation as a result of the actions of the abusive teacher than they are about protecting children.  Either way, it speaks very poorly of the school system asking themselves the question.

Comparing the two incidents, it is outrageous that the teacher/cheerleader would be suspended and it is simply unconscionable that an abusive teacher would be allowed to continue to teach.  (To be fair, we don't know his fate!)

High school students who have cells phones have been provided them by their parents  -- apparently because their parents deemed it appropriate.  (This is a reasonable assumption since most high school students are under eighteen and thus unable to enter into a contract with a cellular provider.) 

It is entirely appropriate that a teacher instruct their students to turn off their cell phones during class but it is also entirely appropriate for a student to ignore such directives when the teacher is being abusive.  As for the teacher/cheerleader, in every respect this was a harmless act.

Frankly I am fed up with the zero-tolerance police-state tactics being implemented in some of our schools -- especially when those tactics are used to protect the schools and teachers without regard for the well-being of the students the schools are there to serve. 

What do you think?