RESPECT 101

So, the high school senior walked up behind his teacher and hugged her for a moment. It appears from the video that another faculty member was in the room.  The teacher says he had done that before and she had warned him that he  would be punished if he did it again.  The student denies the prior incident.  The school suspended the student and postponed his graduation for a year.

A lurking error in the story.  If, in fact, there had been a`prior incident, the teacher should have reported it to the school, and the school should have set up a meeting with the student's parents.  The object being to teach the student respect for other people's lives, and the consequences of inappropriate behavior.  That ought be a part of the school's curriculum, ought it not?  Learning why each of us is entitled to peaceful co-existence is a critical prelude to civilization.  If the student then repeats the offense, punishment is warranted.  A one year suspension seems a bit excessive, but punishment is not calculable by a mathematical formula.

When two young men at a mall in New Jersey yesterday wantonly shot a young man in the head and killed him for no apparent reason, it is clear that they too had not learned respect for other people's lives.  The Pythagorean theorem alone doesn't teach it.