A Video Is Worth....

This week was a big Media Free Week. Though I managed to avoid television and news all week, a few things leaked out.

The most notable was the story of a teacher who had been beat up by one of her students. I did not know the teacher, but I know the school where she works, and I know a young man who attends the school.

I heard the story from a colleague who was very upset by the news. She heard about the incident from the news, and then watched the cell phone video on YouTube that one of the students recorded. From her perspective, the most shocking part was that the entire class watched, and seemed to condone their peer’s attack.

Later the same day, the student I know came by and talked about it. While he wasn’t involved, and had not seen anything, he heard a great deal from his fellow students. From the information he had, he was of the impression that the teacher did not act appropriately, by egging the student on.

I was disappointed by his comments, but realized that for many young people this is the normal course of events. Of course this would happen, when someone gets in your face, you run or you fight. Or if you are really talented, you joke the situation away.

This sort of thinking is also easy to adopt when you haven’t had the experience. I often hear about an incident on the news, and try to break it down like I’m the detective. But I wasn’t at the scene, I don’t know the people involved, and all I have to go on is an anecdote between car commercials.

In this case, however, many people have been able to revisit the scene, thanks to a cell phone video. My student watched the video himself after we talked, and changed his perspective. He saw the person who was hurt, a teacher he knew, and reconsidered his position. While the entire context of the class is missing, the clear brutality of the situation is streaming on the web for anyone to see. [Though it may have been removed by now.]

I’m not sure what this says about society, or media, or the problems in our schools. But I’m glad that video was recorded, and that it might help shed some light on a terrible situation.