Rant #2,104: Tomorrow Belongs To the Children

Earlier this week, students walked out of classrooms to protest gun laws in this country.

With so many school shootings during the past couple of years, schools have gone from places of solitude and learning to vestibules of carnage.

Students as young as those in second grade walked out of school, collectively trying to speak their minds on one of the hotpoint issues of our time--the availability of legal guns, who can get them, and what they are used for.

Well, now that we are a few days removed from this mass exit, what did this event actually accomplish?

Absolutely nothing, and the kids were clearly used as pawns by certain politicians and anti-gun activists to spread agendas, not real action to thwart such incidents as the one that happened at the Florida school, where 17 people were gunned down.

Look, I do support President Trump in much of what he says and does, but I personally don't agree with his firearm policy, and I don't agree with his stance that teachers should carry guns.

But this mass exit was used by certain politicos to further their own agendas, and that made this entire exercise a complete waste of time.

When I see politicos like New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio actually supporting such a walkout, and directly participating in such a vigil, even lying down on the ground as an act of civil disobedience with the students, I know this thing went awry, and far afield from where it should have gone.

We know both Cuomo and deBlasio have further political aspirations, and you just know that their participation was used as a recruitment vehicle for future voters.

And many of their Democratic brethren used the walkout in the same, disreputable way.

It is so obvious ... were they there to protest the gun laws in this country or to curry future voters.

I believe it is the latter, and that is really sad, but never put it past this group to do such a thing. Don't you think they are doing the same thing with their stance on illegal aliens?

Anyway, back to the walkout ...

Little has changed. Even in Florida, where the recent carnage happened, the state can't pass a comprehensive gun control law.

Kids walking out of class served no purpose, and schools are deciding how to handle the walkout, whether to reprimand those who walked out or just what to do with them.

I mean, if you are honest about the whole thing, think back to your own high school days.

Given a choice at whether to go to school, or to participate in this event, you have to figure that out of every 10 students, at least three were actually engaged in this issue, had something to say, and felt that a walkout was just the thing to voice their opinion.

For the other seven of that 10, probably one or two felt somewhat engaged in what was going on, but the other five ... heck, take a day off from school when you can get it!

And I am being conservative myself about that summation; probably seven or eight of 10 kids probably looked to this as a day off and nothing else.

This so reminds me of "Senior Cut Day" that I really have to question those that organized this event and what their actual direction was on such an action.

I remember Senior Cut Day in my high school nearly 44 years ago.

It was June 1975, and the word went out that a particular day was going to be my class' day to take off en masse.

I wasn't planning on taking off, but as fortune would have it, I had a doctor's appointment that was scheduled for that morning that was set up weeks before the word went out when our cut day was going to be.

It was the perfect morning for me to go to the doctor, as the classes I missed were just two gym classes that I had back to back--so no real academic classes would I miss from being late.

So I went to the doctor that morning, and clutching a late note from my mother in my hand, I came into school at about 10 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. or thereabouts, went to the office, handed in my note, and went to class ... where I saw maybe three kids in that particular class, and about the same in the remainder of classes that I went to.

I went through the day, and that was pretty much that. The next school day--it might have been a Monday, that is one thing I don't remember--things were back to normal, and full attendance was the norm in all of my classes.

I went to one class, and a note was sent up to one of the classes that I was in that I had to go to the dean's office right away, right in the middle of class, so I picked up my books and left.

I got to the dean's office, presented the note that I was given to whoever was there, and they put me in a small room, where evidently, I was to meet with someone there for something that I had no idea about.

In came the actual dean, who if I remember correctly, also was a teacher, and more about that later.

Anyway, he sat down at the table that I was sitting at, and he said to me something to the effect of, "You cut out of school on (whatever the date was)."

I told him that I had not, that I came late to school with a note from my mother regarding my doctor's appointment. I told him I handed in the excuse note, and that I missed a total of about two classes that day, both gym classes.

His response was this (and I will never forget it): "I could suspend you from graduation for taking the day off from school!" he puffed at me.

I remember that upon those words hitting my ears, I did a double take that Oliver Hardy of Laurel and Hardy fame would have been proud of, and I said to him, point blank: "You have got to be kidding me!"

Upon hearing that, he told me to go back to class, and no, I was not suspended from graduation, and no, I never heard another word about it.

But about the dean/teacher I heard plenty. If I remember correctly, he was a single teacher at the time, and students who had him told me that he used to talk to his classes about spending weekends on Fire Island.

The next thing we heard is that he was involved in some type of scandal, because he actually married one of his students.

He was in his late 30s, she was all of 18 years of age.

So be it Senior Cut Day! Senior Robbing the Cradle Day was more like it.

But getting back to the recent walkout, I simply don't think it accomplished anything, and how schools are going to handle it is another topic of conversation.

You can't let the kids run the school--that is educational anarchy if it happens.

Make the whole thing a learning experience. Have the kids write a 500-word essay on why they "participated," and what they hoped to accomplish by doing so.

If they hand it in, and it is acceptable, they are excused for the day.

And if they refuse to do it, they are suspended for a day.

Put all of the accepted essays into something of a school time capsule, to be opened on the 25th or 50th anniversary of the walkout event, and see if anything really happened as a result of the walkout.

Sorry, I don't think the results will be positive at all.

Using kids as pawns for other agendas takes the focus off the real thrust of the walkout, and that is a said commentary on those looking to exploit kids for their own betterment.

Speak to you again on Monday. Have a good weekend.