Trouble in Sugarland

Okay, so we don’t condone what the teacher did here. Obviously. Even though Christopher did kick his own kid in the face.

And although I’ve made some poor discipline decisions, I don’t think I’ve ever thought up something  this stupid. In the Houston suburb of Sugarland, 5-year-old Devarius punches a girl in the face on a pre-K field trip. So the teacher allegedly told the other kids in the class, “When we get on the van, I want everyone to punch Devarius in the face.”

This is good video, not least for the vintage Quanell X appearance toward the end. I first heard about Quanell after he protested the Joe Horn vigilante killings I wrote about a couple years ago. He’s an odd one, born in the seventies but forever stuck in the sixties, with a long resume of pretty dubious statements, and yes, that arrest for evading arrest.  Quanell was actually right about Joe Horn, but I’m not so sure about this one. Is it really true that this boy could have been killed by the crushing fistfalls of other pre-K students? Should the whole school be shut down (the teacher was fired immediately, as she should have been)? The report doesn’t make the case that this was just one in a long string of abuses.

Published by Nathan

Nathan Thornburgh is a contributing writer and former senior editor at TIME Magazine who has also written for the New York Times, newyorker.com and, of course, the Phnom Penh Post. He suspects that he is messing up his kids, but just isn’t sure exactly how.

Join the Conversation

5 Comments

  1. I’ve heard about this type of discipline. I think it’s called “The Full Metal Jacket Jelly Donut” technique.

  2. That child is a boy? With pigtails and a pink hoodie? Excuse me, I shouldn’t gender stereotype.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *