Grade School Principal Makes Kids Walk For Hours In Baking Heat WITHOUT WATER

This makes me sick to my stomach. WTH is this idiot thinking????

The principal at a North Carolina elementary school principal is in hot water after parents say she forced a bunch of students outside to trudge around a dirt track for over two hours without hydration because they failed to wear their uniforms on the last day of school.

Because of no uniform???

Complaining parents say the trouble began when their kids showed up at school in regular garb instead of khakis and white polo shirts.
The principal’s response, peeved parents allege, was to order the offending kids outside to schlep around a dirt trail on the Manchester Elementary campus.
The temperature was in the high 70s when the slog started and in the high 80s when it finally ended over two hours later. The high humidity made the air seem hotter. Later in the day, the temperature would climb into the mid 90s.
Parents say the kids had to continue walking until they showed up with their uniforms or just took them home.

The humidity and heat here in NC has been miserable, I can drain a 2 liter camelbak in a few hours here while working outside.

This is the part that REALLY PISSES ME OFF!!!!!

Throughout the punishment, parents said, Holland didn’t allow the kids inside. She forbade teachers from giving them water.

Another parent told the paper that Manchester Elementary fifth graders had worn regular clothes on the last day of school last year. Holland, who is new to the school this year, had instituted a rule against such dress-code violations. However, the parent said, the school failed to communicate the new rule sufficiently.

The superintendent also noted that forced physical activity is illegal under school district rules.

This principal, Tammy Holland, needs charges pressed and thrown in prison, in the baking heat WITHOUT WATER!!!

Grade School Principal Makes Kids Walk For Hours In Baking Heat WITHOUT WATER

Good Lord...

The only thing missing is the staff member with a whip screaming dee dee mow..

Whose to blame? the students or he parents?

There sure are a lot of school teachers, principals, etc. that are getting a bit big for their britches concerning other people's children. Kind of like the cops. It makes you wonder if everyone isn't going a little nuts.

The punishment for this type of thing should be harsh and swift and maybe that would cut down on the occurrences.

It's disgusting that others like control this much. Someone should have accidentally broken both the principle's legs when they were dropping off their children's uniforms. If enough "accidents" happen to people who do this sort of thing.... that would probably cut down on the occurrences as well.

Oh yeah, let's risk a bunch of kids getting heat stroke because they didn't wear the right clothes on the last day of school. Like anyone gives a bleep if you where a uniform or not on that day.

WTH was this woman thinking? It's super easy for a kid to get dehydrated, I spent a lot of summer fun time in my youth recovering from too much time outside & not enough hydration.

a reply to: Xcathdra
the problem i have with this; even being a parent myself i will overlook everything except the reaction that would have happened if indeed this is a "white" person doing this action to an all minority group. Oh wait, i forgot "whitey" is the minority now. Regardless of race or any other factors; this human denied my offspring the right to a life element. if a human would have fought for the right to live in a sort of similar situation then i would be behind them in whole. reminds me of the government in many ways. done ranting.

a reply to: hosnate

Let me clarify.. I was not supporting the punishment. I was just wondering if the students picked out the clothes or if the parents did without realizing they had to be in uniform. One of those honest mistakes.

my apologies; didnt mean to seem to attack or take any side. i just happened to reply to your post. salute a reply to: Xcathdra

You see, my kids are told to simply come home, exit school, walk away when any BS happens. Now doing it and drawing attention, they might not, conformity. But if mad enough they would.

Fired from the school system. She obviously cannot be trusted to monitor or care for children.

Would be nice if a judge gave her a week of labor out in the summer sun. She needs to learn about heat and hydration.

edit:

The superintendent also noted that forced physical activity is illegal under school district rules.

She can't even follow school rules...

OK, we've settled that the principal was wrong and should be punished. If you're curious, here's the weather report for that day;
www.wunderground.com...

And, sure, it was just good luck, but I'm surprised that there is no report of any one taken to the hospital for observation.

My impression (subject to change, of course), is that the teacher was foul, but she was stopped before the kids were in any danger.

a reply to: roadgravel

The sad thing about that is (at least here) it is illegal to put inmates out to work in the same temperatures this principal had the kids walking in.

So in essence, those kids were treated worse than criminals.


a reply to: charles1952

I am glad it was stopped before any of the kids suffered any complications. Dehydration can kill pretty swiftly, as can heat stroke.

I always wonder if I am the only one that is curious as to what behavior these folks have gotten away with before they were caught and stopped. I am sure some folks get caught the first time they display this amount of outrageous ignorance, but I am just as sure a lot of them have done far worse before they were stopped.

It's a scary thought. Brazen.

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: hosnate

Let me clarify.. I was not supporting the punishment. I was just wondering if the students picked out the clothes or if the parents did without realizing they had to be in uniform. One of those honest mistakes.

In the articles I read (including this one), it sounds like no uniform was the tradition for the last day of school in years past. This principal decided that the kids couldn't do that, but it didn't get out to all the parents. Lost notes? Not posted on the school site? It would be an easy thing to miss. Kudos to the mom who called the district on this, and I'm in awe of her restraint in not drop-kicking the principal.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

Dear Kangaruex4Ewe,

You're absolutely right. The vast majority have gotten away with multiple examples of this behavior. It's not so much the event itself, but the mind set.

The mind set that tells parents they have no real choice over the curriculum, or tells kids that if they've already learned the material, they just have to sit and be quiet. Hundreds of rules and policies that can't really be appealed to anyone with much chance of success.

"Ha-Ha! I've made it! I'm the boss! I'll show you what it's like to dance to my tune. I'll have perfect control. If anything unusual happens, I'll be right there with punishment. I won't stand any nonsense." It sounds like a government bureaucrat, which is exactly what the principal of a public school is.

With respect,
Charles1952

According to the original reporting news article, the last kids marching at least had enough sense to finally quit following orders and get under a tree for shade.

"When I got out there, they had stopped under the tree because it was so hot," she said. "It would break your heart."
www.fayobserver.com...

Apparently the principle wasn't going to stand out there herself and make them, and was probably sitting comfortably inside with air conditioning.

a reply to: charles1952

You can almost see them rubbing their hands together in glee like Snidely Whiplash. I think they are taking full advantage of the fact that it generally takes both parents working these days to survive. Very few are able to stay at home to either supervise more, or even pull their kids out of school to home school them when they are unhappy with what the public reeducation system is providing for their children.

I was blessed enough to be able to stay at home with my daughter (almost 17). We had to do without a helluva lot of things to make it happen and I will be forever grateful for that. That time has left me able to focus more on what was actually going on in my daughter's life at school. I did not homeschool, but may wind up doing so before she can complete her 11th and 12th grade years.

There have been problems that have arisen that I was able to deal with 100% because I had that free time. I could show up at school and let them know my opinion when that was what was needed. Many parents can't do that and that is one of e biggest reasons this continues to happen IMO. People can't take off work to go and complain for fear of getting fired or simply because a missed day means less food the next week.

That's a sad situation and one shouldn't need to always be concerned about how their children are being treated at school. ESPECIALLY NOT by the teachers/staff. The fact that we do speaks volumes.

What do they say about absolute power?? That's what is happening here. People didn't stand up the first time these sorts of incidents started occurring, and now here we sit. Like some children, some adults will do what they can get away with. By having the need for both parents to work 60 hours a week just to eat, they are given all the time in the world to get away with almost anything they wish.

Sorry about going off on a TMI tangent there... This is one of those areas that really chaps my hide.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

Dear Kangaruex4Ewe,

No apology is appropriate. A wonderful post, and if ATSers and the rest of the country could understand it, we'd have a much better country.

Government can't educate properly, but they want Common Core, all-day pre-school, and no three month summer vacation.

Government wants to control health care, but they can't run the VA.

We could talk about energy policy and global warming. or foreign policy, or many other issues, but you are fundamentally right. Power corrupts, and the purpose of power is to get more power.

I chuckle at those worried about the Illuminati. Our problem is normal individuals who have become addicted to, and corrupted by, power. That's the mind set I'm talking about.

With respect,
Charles1952

a reply to: HomerinNC

imho,

1. She needs evaluated for REACTIVE ATTACHMENT DISORDER. I'd wager she has a huge degree of it. Her control freakism reeks.

2. Sideline, Court sentence her . . . as a teacher's aid to the most control freakish Grande Dame old maid teacher in the district for a good long time.

3. If she misbehaves . . . send her to the track in the heat of the day for at least 3-5 laps, without water.

4. Have her visit the homes of each of the students to apologize on her knees.

= = =

Maybe I'm being extreme . . . but her offense was extreme, imho.

What does not kill you'd makes you'd stronger, an good prep for what's too come...

a reply to: Dicko

Normally I would agree with you 100%. I am definitely in the camp of "kids are being raised to be lazy wussies" most of the time. However, these kids were in elementary school and failed to wear the uniform. Whether the school failed to make the rule change clear enough for parents and students isn't really an issue. Most elementary school students do not do their own laundry, therefore regardless of how it went down, the fault would lie with adults (either side) and not the kids. They were being punished needlessly.

I am also not real sure everyone has a problem with the punishment itself, it's the fact that they weren't allowed to have water in high temperatures that seems to be the straw that broke the camel's back. That is going above and beyond punishment and crosses over into abuse. Especially since CPS would have been raising holy hell had any one of those parents saw fit to punish their own child the same way this school did.

I tell my daughter to man up a lot. I do try to prepare her for the real world (which also sucks) but punishments like these would not sit well with me at all. I have no issue at all if she does something at school that warrants punishment. I hand it down in my own household (she would tell you) with an iron fist. I work very hard to make sure she isn't one of the entitled, lazy, whiny, new generation.

But I would be damned if they refused her water on any given day. Punishment or not. So I see where you are coming from, I just disagree with it in this case. They were way out of bounds.

an obvious fact that people seem to have missed :

all regulations apply every day - unless a specific waiver to a specific regulation is granted