When my 15-year-old grandson began Middle school after COVID, he often would come home and show me a video of a “student fight.”
They are explosive, sudden, and violent. The fights went on long enough for him to pull his cell phone out of his pocket and record.
He never put them on social media; he only showed them to me, his mom, and, I’m sure, his friends.
I’m Gloria Moraga; this is One-On-One; please subscribe, comment, and share.
Violence in School
I was sick as I watched. I asked who was fighting.
This time it was two females. But he says everybody fights.
I asked, Is it racial?
He shrugged. Not really. Usually, it’s because somebody disrespected somebody else.
What?
Teachers or security guards, or hall monitors break up the fights. Sometimes this happens quickly; sometimes, the adults are not that quick.
One day, my daughter got a call. Aiden was in trouble.
No, thank God, he wasn’t in a fight. No, what happened was one of the adults caught him shooting the “fight video.”
His phone was confiscated, and my daughter’s parent was asked to delete the fights.
Statistics Show Teenagers are Fighting Everwhere
Let me answer this question just in case you are wondering. I live in a Sacramento, California, suburb.
When I moved here from Washington, D.C, I chose to live here because of the quality of the public schools.
I found this on Niche.Com.
“Elk Grove Unified School District is a highly rated public school district located in ELK GROVE, CA. It has 63,660 students in grades K-12 with a student-teacher ratio of 23 to 1. According to state test scores, 45% of students are at least proficient in math and 56% in reading.”
And this comes from the school district’s website.
“The Elk Grove Unified School District is the fifth-largest school district in California and the largest in northern California. Located in southern Sacramento County, the district covers 320 square miles.”
We’ve been notified of possible school shootings; the schools have been locked down; we’ve received texts that say there are posts and readers on social media that there will be a shooting tomorrow, etc.
Some of these are pranks, kids haven’t studied, and they don’t want to go in for the big math quiz the next day.
Ya. Like in my high school days, somebody would pull the fire alarm.
Of course, that was before Sandy Hook, when some psycho decided to shoot babies.
Wake Up People
When some parents were protesting about masks, they were banning books and outlawing speech.
I am really, quietly enraged about all this.
People are worried about the wrong things; I want to shout.
Our Kids are beating each other up. In-School. Everyday! Every fricking day!
For the first time in my life, I’m not going to start throwing up statics; because figures don’t lie, but liars figure.
I don’t think all these fights are reported.
Have you heard about students creating fake Instagram accounts to bully other students anonymously?
This is a quote from an LA Times article entitled, “Educators report a rise in school threats, fights, and misbehavior, and blame COVID?
“Students are instigating conflict online, and when they have to see each other face-to-face, they don’t know how to resolve their issues,” the teacher said. Staff at the school have tried to get Instagram to remove the accounts, but to no avail, he said.
Astor pointed out that this behavior in schools existed long before social media. Still, it has further fragmented relationships for children who spend several hours each day online in the “absence of time spent with other real human beings.” End quote.
Communicate
One-on-One people. Talk to each other. Talk to your kids every day.
Example:
“What happened in school today?”
“Nothing.”
“Something must have happened.”
“No, it was boring.”
“What did you learn?”
“Nothing.”
Suggestions
How about these for some questions.
“Were there any fights at school today?”
“How did you feel about it?”
“Who is picking on whom?”
“Are students kind to each other? Are they mean to each other?”
“Do you ever get bullied, or are people mean to you?”
“Are you mean to others? Talk to me. I care and want to know what is happening in your life.”
This will work.
“What do you think about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock?” At the Oscars, for goodness sakes.
Did you ever hear the phrase, “Stick and stones may break my bones, but the word can never hurt me?”
What does that phrase mean? Because I will say that yes, words are powerful and can hurt. But you can walk away; you don’t have to listen.
You don’t have to listen to insults, watch them tv or deal with nastiness anywhere.
You can turn off the tv, stop the video, mute the music, walk away, smile, frown.
Leave. Leaving is a better solution than attacking.
This is what the Slap-Happy Actor Could have Done
Lean over, tell your wife you are going to the restroom, and walk out of the room away from Chris Rock. Give him your back. Be a man.
I won’t go into the responsibility public figures must carry. You entertain. You owe your livelihood to the public; you must deal with the consequences. If you are a role model, you must show kids that it is never an option to attack someone.
Don’t Touch Each Other in Anger
I say this at least once a day or more to my grandchildren.
Don’t touch your sister. Don’t touch your brother.
Only to hug or kiss or show affection.
Don’t push her,don’t touch her if she says no. don’t tap her head to annoy her. Don’t do it. Ever. Don’t slap out in anger.
Instead, move away, find your center. Take a deep breath and find your inner strength and peace.
I love movies. I enjoy watching great actors and films get the praise they deserve. But not at the expense of our kids.
Okay, so I can bet money that there were very few middle school students watching the live Oscars program on TV,
They don’t watch TV like we do.
But they saw it on social media.
When I asked my grandson what he thought about it, we talked about the walking way.
The Verbal Insult
“He insulted the wife, and she has a disability,” Aiden said.
He disrespected a woman with a disability. Aiden knew that was going to get me. Cause I constantly talk about women, and I have a disability.
I said the wife, Jada Pinka Smith, is wildly talented; she can take care of herself. She is beautiful. She is strong.
As for the disability, it’s not funny or good to joke about a disability. Ever. I’m not defending that.
I’m saying it is wrong to slap someone.
Period.
I know it’s not easy to communicate. But we have to try.
I can’t stand the thought of our kids hitting each other at school.
Or Anywhere.
I’m Gloria Moraga, please share and subscribe. Be safe!
A letter from Albert Einstein to his daughter, Lieserl on The Universal Force of Love
“When I proposed the theory of relativity, very few understood me, and what I will reveal now to transmit to mankind will also collide with the misunderstanding and prejudice in the world.
I ask you to guard the letters as long as necessary, years, decades, until society is advanced enough to accept what I will explain below.
There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us. This universal force is LOVE.
When scientists looked for a unified theory of the universe they forgot the most powerful unseen force. Love is Light, that enlightens those who give and receive it. Love is gravity, because it makes some people feel attracted to others. Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals. For love we live and die. Love is God and God is Love.
This force explains everything and gives meaning to life. This is the variable that we have ignored for too long, maybe because we are afraid of love because it is the only energy in the universe that man has not learned to drive at will.
To give visibility to love, I made a simple substitution in my most famous equation. If instead of E = mc2, we accept that the energy to heal the world can be obtained through love multiplied by the speed of light squared, we arrive at the conclusion that love is the most powerful force there is, because it has no limits.
After the failure of humanity in the use and control of the other forces of the universe that have turned against us, it is urgent that we nourish ourselves with another kind of energy…
If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer.
Perhaps we are not yet ready to make a bomb of love, a device powerful enough to entirely destroy the hate, selfishness and greed that devastate the planet.
However, each individual carries within them a small but powerful generator of love whose energy is waiting to be released.
When we learn to give and receive this universal energy, dear Lieserl, we will have affirmed that love conquers all, is able to transcend everything and anything, because love is the quintessence of life.
I deeply regret not having been able to express what is in my heart, which has quietly beaten for you all my life. Maybe it’s too late to apologize, but as time is relative, I need to tell you that I love you and thanks to you I have reached the ultimate answer! “.
Your father,
Albert Einstein
