Late-night talk show host Bill Maher took on the Spring Valley high school confrontation, when a female student was thrown to the ground by a school police officer, and said bad parenting was to blame for such incidents.
Mr. Maher admitted that it was “horrendous” for an officer to use such physical force against a teenage student for not handing over her cell phone, but added he has “sympathy for people in authority because I think parents just let kids do anything nowadays, so they never listen to authority,” Mediaite reported.
“Am I wrong that parents are just not doing the job? It’s overzealous policing and underzealous parenting?” Mr. Maher asked.
Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, pointed out that in many cases, it’s not fair to assume that all students have parents.
Actor David Spade agreed with Mr. Maher, saying that when he was in school he respected and feared his teachers, but now teachers are frightened of students.
Mr. Maher said parents and teachers used to work together to keep children in line.
“When we were kids, there was an alliance between parents and teachers that the kids could not drive a wedge through, and now there is an alliance against the teachers,” Mr. Maher said. “That’s why they can’t teach, because the little brats go home and complain, and then the parents complain to the teachers. They’re not on the side of the teachers.”
He added that the deeper problem behind these student/teacher confrontations is that parents “constantly negotiate with their children,” instead of teaching them not to talk back to their teachers.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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