Schools are to Blame?

In Saturday’s St. Louis Post Dispatch article about the suspect in Officer Brown’s tragic shooting death, much blame was assigned to the St. Louis Public Schools. Robbyn Wahby, Mayor Slay’s executive assistant for education complained, “Mostly, the schools are not taking responsibility for what they need to be doing for these children.”
Such an opinion based on these facts is ludicrous.
Here was someone who didn’t enroll for the 05-06 school year, missed 62 days last year and we are told it’s the fault of the school district he hasn’t been successful.
This killing was a result of an individual not respecting the value of another’s life. It’s a damn shame. But the responsibility belongs to the individual. If you want to help kids from falling through the cracks, I suggest you start providing the staff with the Missouri Social Services Department with the resources to deal with the overwhelming numbers of children whose family’s can’t or won’t deal with them. Blaming the schools may be popular but it’s flat wrong.
Mike Heins