No doubt a lot of people will be talking about Upper Darby High School again today.
They’re in the news again because a couple of kids got caught with a loaded gun in school. Police indicate one student had swapped a gun with another. They’re both now under arrest.
You can read the full story here.
Some no doubt will believe we are again unfairly targeting the school for negative coverage.
Others will again save their outrage for Police Superintendent Mike Chitwood, who has already gone a couple of rounds with students about some comments he made about the school.
I’d actually like to talk about something else. I’d like to note the actions of both a student and teacher in reporting the incident.
Both did exactly the right thing.
There are a lot of good people at Upper Darby High. They don’t often make the newspaper.
These two did, although I am sure they would rather it not be for the circumstances surrounding this story.
That doesn’t change what they did. It probably won’t change the image a lot of people have of the high school either. And that’s a shame.
Upper Darby is as close as you can come to a true melting pot in this area. On a visit to the school last year, I learned that more than 70 languages are spoken by students there.
What happens every day there is a little bit of an educational miracle.
That’s easy to lose track of when stories like today’s hit the news.
That’s not especially fair. It’s also not especially new. It’s always the few doing something wrong that get the coverage. That is what makes it “news.” Kids, teachers and staff doing what they are supposed to do every is by definition not exactly “news.”
That doesn’t mean they should not be noticed. Especially in cases like this one when their actions prevent a possible tragedy.
Just thought I’d point that out.
Comments