Seattle Schools Community Forum

I recently became aware of a serious issue with teenagers and their relationships called breakup violence.     I learned more about it via a CBS show " 48 Hours " (mostly about murders) and this one was about a "beautiful" high school couple.  She was the petite, smart girl with the football boyfriend.  But, their senior year, he became more and more possessive and controlling.  She didn't like it and ended the relationship. He didn't hit her.  He didn't threaten her.  But, during their relationship, he texted her endlessly, told her who to talk to (and not to talk to) and generally tried to control her life.  From the show: As authorities learned more about how Lauren Astley's body ended up in the marsh, they started to believe she was a victim of a disturbing trend: breakup violence. It is a crime that has no zip code. It's urban, suburban, and rural. A relationship ends and what happens is an emotional surge of uncontrollable anger....

Here's a dilemma (or maybe not).  Over at the Jezebel blog, they found that there were a number of teens who, after the reelection of President Obama, sent out very hateful and racist tweets.  Jezebel looked these teens up and where they went to school, checked their school's code of conduct, and then contacted their respective administrations.  In many cases, either the school code of conduct and/or student athletic code of conduct was violate. Jezebel says: We contacted their school's administrators with the hope that, if their educators were made aware of their students' ignorance, perhaps they could teach them about racial sensitivity. Or they could let them know that while the First Amendment protects their freedom of speech, it doesn't protect them from the consequences that might result from expressing their opinions.  Additionally, several of the teens use imagery of their high schools' sports teams on their Twitter accounts and Facebook p...