I fear for the youth of today. Seriously fear for them. Not because of global warming or cyberterrorism or a zombie apocalypse, but because of their parents.
I’ve been quite outspoken on my distress that helicopter parenting has elevated (heh heh) to a point that would have seemed ridiculous a generation ago, and I keep hoping I’ll be proven overly cynical, the girl who cried wolf, or completely wrong. After all, I am personally invested in this serious problem as a citizen, an educator, and … well, someone who sees an awful of parents whose kids control them the way a puppeteer directs a marionette.
But I think I’m right about this one, much to my chagrin.
There are news stories that crop up all the time, giving credence to my theory that far too many underage inmates are running an increasing number of asylums.
Consider this, from Time Magazine:
A Pennsylvania woman faces six felony charges for doing just that. Catherine Venusto, 45, hacked into the Northwestern Lehigh School District computer system and altered the grades of her two children, ABC News reports. Venusto had worked at the district as an administrative office secretary from 2008 through April, 2011. A year before she quit, Venusto, of New Tripoli, Penn., had been accused of changing her daughter’s failing grade to a medical exception. And in February, 2012, she was accused of changing her son’s 98 to a 99.
I have worked in enough school districts to know that, if a medical exception is warranted, it is given. In fact, it’s not exactly difficult…
