Issue: Morality and Schools

The sex scandal involving Spur Posse members at Lakewood High School and the discussions in area classrooms before the verdicts in the Rodney G. King civil rights

trial have focused attention on the role schools play in teaching students right and wrong. What role should schools play in teaching young people about morality?

Joan Elliot

High school English teacher, ABC Unified School District Cooperation. Honesty. Fairness. We certainly enforce those things. But schools are not the primary sources of morality. The homes and the churches and the synagogues have to define those moral values first. Children learn a lot before they ever get in our door. We only see them six or seven hours a day. Parents have control of the child for the rest of the time. If the only values these kids get are from the schools, then that’s sad. Recently we had to look at how to deal with the riots and civil disobedience and rebellion and crime. We took a proactive stance. We had discussions in the classrooms and actually suspended lessons for the day. We needed to do that and I think it was right to do. But here we are all of a sudden taking the time we would have spent on academics and dealing with what’s moral and what’s right. Society’s kind of thrust it on us. If we had a riot a week I don’t know how we could get around to making sure our students were literate.

The Rev. Wardell Frasier

Minister, St. Paul Baptist Church The school is the logical place to use a home base for morality because this is where you have the melting pot. This is where you have all nationalities, all races, all creeds. And you have these impressionable young people. When prayers were taken out of the schools, I believe that’s when we started down the wrong road. I think the schools should be adding to the curriculum a devotional period where children can get together for a few minutes before school starts. Schools should teach classes in human relations and in how to get along with one another. The Bible itself should be brought back into the classroom. You can make it an elective in the Bible’s history. Even in a secular setting, the principles for just living are there. On a quarterly basis, ministers and community members can come into the schools and have discussions. I believe the schools should be doing more.

Sally Tinseth

Parent, Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District Morals are not the responsibility of the teachers. I do not believe the subject belongs in the schools. These teachers have a tough enough job trying to teach every day. They cannot play parent also. My daughter is in advanced classes in high school and they hardly have time to get through the material now, without the teachers worrying about moral issues. Schools can establish dress codes. They can try different things. Morals can be reinforced at the school, but it has to start within the home. I think if there’s a problem at school, the parent should be brought in to help iron it out. I don’t expect anybody else to teach my children about morals. I’m a parent who only works part time because I want to be home when my kids get home from school. I think the main problem, unfortunately, is the working parent--the parents who have to work for financial reasons and therefore are not able to be home.

Karla Taylor

Assistant principal, Lakewood High School I do an awful lot of discipline and counseling as an assistant principal, so I’m attempting to monitor morality all the time. It could be anything from gambling to theft of property. It’s just part of the job. Young people face complex issues these days. There are appropriate places in the schools where those issues can be addressed. I was fortunate to be involved in my teaching years in situations where those topics fit easily into the curriculum. In psychology or law classes ethics and old-fashioned civics fit right in. I’m also a very big proponent of peer counseling. Schools are a perfect place to train students to deal with their peers. Kids listen to kids. Peer counseling classes or small retreats provide situations where students can have discussions and work with other kids. We’re doing those things at Lakewood. Since the arrests we have held extra assemblies.