School doesn’t resume in Texas for another month, but Sunnyvale Middle School, located in an affluent, church-friendly community near Dallas, is already garnering its share of unwelcome attention.

In the fall, Sunnyvale students will have to take a values-based course promoting “good choices,” and the athletic locker room is going to be revamped so that coaches can watch students from “all angles.”

The reason for both these initiatives is pretty alarming. For months last year, before and after a first period physical education class, small seventh-grade boys were regularly preyed upon by bigger eighth-grade males who supposedly threatened to rape them.

Equally as scary is the reaction of the school officials who breezily dismissed the terrorized students’ complaints (who were initially reticent to tell any adults what was going on) as “nothing beyond bullying.”

Boys will be boys, right?

Frustrated Sunnyvale residents decided to pay a visit to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department and begged them to investigate. Fortunately they did, and the upshot is that the Dallas County district attorney’s office may be filing criminal charges against five eighth grade students, which could result in the perpetrators learning their ABC’s at a juvenile justice alternative education program.

Sunnyvale (such a chirpy name!) Middle School may boast a “gleaming white stone façade” and rave reviews from the greatschools.com site, but the lessons from this crisis remind us of some brutal truths about public education.

For instance…

• Many of those in charge aren’t really interested in the care and protection of children.

• Deviant behavior is often learned at school from peers.

• Sending children to well-maintained, state-of-the-art school buildings in upscale communities doesn’t guarantee good outcomes.

• In this overly sexualized Internet age, sons, as well as daughters, are vulnerable to harm.

• When parents act like parents and take back their authority, children are less at risk of becoming victims.

• More than a few overly active male students have no business being in passive, female-run schools. They would be better off learning a trade or spending part of their days doing physical labor or chores.

• The mainstream media performs a valuable public service when they run these stories. They should be applauded when they do so.

• If your child is assaulted at school, contact the police; don’t rely on the principal or superintendent.

• Sexual and physical assaults on minor students have become increasingly common. If you are a parent, please stay informed. In fact, start by reading this article on sexual misconduct in schools.

• Teachers unions will do everything in their power, even aiding and abetting criminal behavior, to keep their taxpayer-funded cash cow from ever shutting down.

• Beware of compassionate-sounding politicians who want to give more money to public schools. They are only increasing the education bureaucracy’s power to do greater harm to more children.

Isabel Lyman holds a doctorate in social science and is the author of The Homeschooling Revolution (2000).

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