Kerby Anderson
Now that summer break has arrived, it’s worth taking a moment to evaluate student behavior in the public schools. An article in City Journal reports that “students nationwide have been filmed swearing at teachers, flipping over desks, and committing physical violence.” Bad behavior has been the rule for many years but has gotten even worse since the pandemic.
A 2022 EdWeek article reported that 44 percent of school-district leaders said they received more threats of violence from students now than in fall 2019, and that “two out of three teachers, principals, and district leaders” noted more misbehavior from students compared with 2019.
The pendulum swings back and forth. In the 1980s, school districts implemented “zero tolerance” discipline policies. This meant mandatory suspension and expulsions for behavior issues, especially if they involved threats of violence. Ten years ago, the federal government told school districts to remediate these policies because they were racially discriminatory. They were replaced with “restorative-justice” policies that minimize “exclusions” from school.
The obvious solution is to deal with any behavior in the classroom before it gets out of hand. But there are other obvious solutions like going back to grading policies based on merit instead of letting students retake tests.
Tracking is another issue. Students bored with a slow pace of learning are more likely to act out. Students who can’t keep up with a faster rate get confused and frustrated.
Another obvious solution is to ban cell phones from the classroom. They distract teenagers and are just one more class disruption. Many of the videos I have seen result from a teacher trying to take away a cell phone from a student.
Student behavior is getting worse. It is time for administrators, principals, teachers, and parents to act before school starts again.

Kerby Anderson
We are facing a significant mental health crisis with our children and young adults. Elizabeth Fisher Good persuasively argues that we can be “Protecting our Kids’ Mental Health by Protecting their Sexual Health.” The stress, anxiety, and depression they exhibit are due to more than a lack of personal connection.
She warns, “Our children are being targeted online like never before by those who only seek to use and abuse them.” She explains, “Predators pose as peers on their favorite social media apps or online gaming chatrooms, forming what feels like a real connection to our lonely and disconnected kids seeking affirmation and acceptance.”
She also explains the way these traffickers use established grooming techniques. “They’ll ask for innocent-sounding photos at first, pushing for more and more each time until suddenly our kids are now under the control of this person and feel they have no one to turn to for help.”
The statistics from the Internet are overwhelming. The best estimates are that probably half a million predators are online every day. That suggests that about one in nine children will receive an online sexual solicitation. And once predators have secured a sexual image of a child, they can digitally manipulate it. This is referred to as child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
One article from Psychology Today on “The Long-Lasting Consequences of Child Sexual Abuse,” explains that it doesn’t seem to matter whether the abuse is physical or virtual. The long-term impact is anxiety, depression, PTSD, personality disorders, and eating disorders. I might also point out that the consequences may take years to develop.
We are rightly concerned with the mental health issues facing children and young adults. To protect their mental health, we must also protect their sexual health.