The Cult of Equality is in full swing in today's public schools.
Instead of disciplining students, teachers are expected to accomodate them. Accountability has shifted from the students to the adults, many of whom are still struggle to grow up, themselves.
There is no excuse for this laxity of behavior. Students do not have the right to air grievances, to talk back to their teachers, to misbehave. Even if the teachers' conduct does not measure up all the time, authority is the final arbiter. There is no excuse, none, for students to demonstrate disrespect to a teacher, especially in public.
Students have become so accustomed to acting anything but their age, that when one teacher does expect students to conduct themselves with decorum, he is treated like an alien or a Nazi. The tough approach to student discipline is crucial if we want our young people to become young men and women of substance and structure.
Students need parents, not pals. They need fathers and mothers, not friends. The Cult of Equality is now making it acceptable for teenagers to be treated like adults with enduring the rites of adulthood that accompany adopting the attached liberties.