Dec. 17 should have been a happy day for our school aged kids as the last day of school before their winter break. Instead, parents all around the U.S. had to debate whether or not to allow their kids to even attend.
Another TikTok trend has hit our nation and this time the challenge is to shoot up your school. While the districts around the area didn’t seem too concerned about the validity of this trend, the email that was sent out by superintendents didn’t dampen the fear a lot of parents felt about this day.
Several families decided to keep their children home last Friday for fear there was some validity to the threats. The sad thing is that that fear is not unrealistic. It wasn’t that long ago that suspicions were valid but went unheard, and now four teens are being mourned.
We cannot blame our schools for this, even though that seems like the easiest route. The school districts can only do so much. That’s why it’s time for parents to step up and do what’s right. Stop misplacing the blame. Only parents can control what their children do online, what social media outlets they are a part of and what kind of discipline happens at home.
Teachers are trained to teach our students, not raise them to be outstanding citizens, and yet it seems they are spending more time teaching manners, and what appropriate behavior is than focusing on the student’s education.
There are schools in our area that received backlash from parents because classrooms were choosing to show movies in those last few days before breaks. Apparently, some parents did not think this was appropriate because showing movies is not educational. If we can raise a stink about something that is so inconsequential but allow these trends to continue to happen, what is that saying for our community, for the adults that are raising our next generation? It might be time to focus our outrage on something more important, like our children’s safety.
Parents, be more aware. Talk to your kids about what they are seeing and posting on social media. As of now, children are getting suspended and expelled for inappropriate behavior on social media when they are caught, but parents are starting to be held responsible for the actions of their kids, maybe that’s the solution we need. We can learn a lot from our kids, or they can learn a lot from us.
If you’re interested in knowing more about how you can keep your kids safe on social media, see TikTok’s website at: https://www.tiktok.com/safety/en/guardians-guide/ for guidance
