While the Lord of the Flies criminality at St. Michael's College should upset everyone, especially the parents of students attending that prestigious institution, I find it telling that those same parents are blaming the media more than they are the school for these terrible events. Given that the tuition to this elite day school starts at $20,000, some moms, who no doubt are used to getting their way in most matters, seem to feel they should also have control over what the media reports:
I guess there are some things that even money can't buy.
This story reminds me of the kind of stuff we heard about when Judge Kavanaugh's high school days were put under the microscope, Lorne.
ReplyDeleteIt also reminds me of some of the parents I taught in an affluent community, Owen. To them, I was there to serve, nothing more.
Delete.. most of my family & friends went to St Mikes, I did one tortured year at De La Salle, my son who attended Malvern was often threatened and extorted by Neil McNeil students.. I have LOTS of details. The teachers were certainly no saints, some were psychopaths. And for that matter, Upper Canada College had similar overall issues. These days, many of the students have been essentially raised by nannies.. I kid you not.. and the peer group(s) they run in may influence students the rest of their lives. I escaped to a rural public school and high school.. then University of Guelph. Never did I see or get even a whiff of assault or sexual intimidation or hazing.. and I played multiple sports from public school right up to intercollegiate football & basketball. My son reports the same from Malvern Collegiate. Not a whiff.. but I knew his teachers & coaches & they were alert, astute women & men.. not careless whatsoever. Ran tight classes or tight ships.. or ran both. As always I suggest reading the truly grim book by Jon Krakauer - Missoula - and one gets a sense of wonderment at how juvenile assaulters evolve in high school and go on to an adult pattern in schools of higher education. Some of this is 'hard wiring' but much is also peer group driven - ie environment & some is laid in at home by parents.. or absentee parents
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insightful comments, Sal. Institutions all have cultures, some nurturing, some destructive. When I attended Catholic school many years ago, the abuse was not by fellow students but by the staff, most of whom took an unhealthy delight in either humiliating us or physically abusing us. Such trauma tends to reside in memory, at the very least.
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