October 2nd 2023.
A 15-year-old junior at Southwestern Classical Academy in Flint, Michigan has been charged with two counts of felony assault after throwing a chair at a teacher. According to ABC 12, the teacher was struck by the chair and fell to the floor, remaining there for several seconds. After a school resource officer was called to the classroom to break up the fight between the two students, the teacher was found unresponsive with a head injury.
Superintendent Kevelin Jones released a statement on September 29th, emphasizing that the student responsible for the incident would be held accountable. He wrote, “We are committed to ensuring that our schools are safe and conducive to learning for all scholars, and we take this responsibility very seriously.”
The incident quickly went viral, with users across Twitter and other social media platforms commenting on the condition of schools in Michigan. Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig weighed in on the issue, noting that the video “perfectly captures the sad state of Education in Michigan.” He went on to say that a failure to educate young Michiganders could lead to an increase in crime, unemployment, and societal disorder.
The sentiment of Craig’s post is in line with the findings of several surveys conducted in the wake of the pandemic. The EdWeek Research Center published a survey of 1,058 educators, principals, and school district leaders, which indicated that 70% of educators reported more students misbehaving in their classes in 2023, compared to 66% in 2021.
Texas Monthly asked teachers about the behavior of students post-pandemic. Stacey Ward, a 25-year veteran fifth-grade math teacher from Texas’ Humble Independent School District, spoke of the social and emotional learning that students are missing, which she believes is a major cause of the increased misbehavior in classrooms. She said, “They don’t know how to make friends. They don’t know how to resolve conflict. They don’t know how to apologize. They don’t know how to put certain things behind them and move on.”
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