Building Character in School

            The recent guilty verdict of two Steubenville, Ohio high school football players for the rape of a drunken classmate gained national attention for two disturbing reasons.  The first is an apparent cover up by coaches and other adults who failed to report the incident to law enforcement allegedly to protect the football program.  However, it is the second reason, students videotaping, texting and posting the assault on social media that will be discussed.

            According published reports, several students recorded the assault on their cell phones, posted the assault online and texted and chatted about the assault[i].  To make matters worse, yesterday it was reported that two girls ages 15 and 16 were arrested and charged with aggregated menacing for posting online threats via Twitter and Facebook to kill and do bodily harm to the victim[ii].

            Unfortunately, more and more of these incidents are occurring where high school students are recording and posting criminal acts on social media sites instead of assisting the victims during the incident or providing the recorded information to law enforcement. What is even more disturbing is that on many of these recordings, you hear the crowd encouraging the assault, laughing at the assault and discussing how the person recoding the assault can’t wait to post the recorded assault online.  It’s time for our high schools to step up and help students develop a better value system.

            Character education in schools is highly controversial.  Being primarily debated in elementary and middle school settings, advocates of character education believe it will help young adults become better citizens by instilling moral character which is being lost in our society.  Opponents to character education argue character and moral development should be left to the family and schools should help promote character development through the various clubs and teams sports. 

            Although there are valid arguments on both sides, missing is the lack of remorse or empathy being shown by students who watch and record their peer being assaulted or humiliated and then post them on social media for the world to see. 

I do not believe schools have to teach character education, however, schools should engage in character building. Through clubs, team sports and electives, schools can discuss the ethical dilemma cyber-bullying, sexting, and the recording and posting of inappropriate material on social media have on the victim, the perpetrators and those who witness and do nothing.  Schools can discourage those behaviors by implementing disciplinary procedures that make such violations a violation of school climate and threats to student safety.  Schools could also in cases of team sports forfeit games, suspend players and reinstate them upon meeting certain criteria, and in the case of Steubenville, terminate any coaches involved in the alleged cover up.

If schools can teach sex education, schools can engage in character building.  If schools fail to act, tragedies such as in Steubenville and across the country will only escalate.

---

[i] www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57574904/city-backs-growing-steubenville-probe

[ii] www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57575045/tow-charged-with-threats-in-steubenville-rape case