And speaking of the use of force…

You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t! – Eleanor Roosevelt

Proceeding with this week’s accidental theme, an incident occurred at Batavia High School that’s even more troubling than the use-of-force study intended to make the Elgin Police look far worse than they really are. Here’s what happened.

It’s not clear who started the verbal altercation, but after a 16-year-old black female student began arguing with the students at another table, a white male lunchroom monitor quickly moved to intervene and deescalate the situation. But the female student simply walked around him and continued to argue with a specific male student at the same table.

According to a D101 press release:

The female student, without physical provocation, then struck the male student about the head several times. The campus monitor, who was standing next to the female student, immediately took action to separate the female student from the male student. In doing so, the campus monitor pinned the female student against a nearby table. The campus monitor attempted to keep control of the female student while she was actively striking him and yelling at him.

The girl was so out of control that the monitor had to put her in a headlock, or something similar, so he could radio for help to bring her under control.

As you might imagine, with social media awash with cellphone snippets of the struggle, the national media crucifixion commenced very next day. Without making any attempt to get the whole story, they bandied about words like “disturbing, “violent” and “choke hold” with no regard for what that might do to the school’s reputation and the cafeteria monitor’s career.

The official district videos were turned over to the Batavia Police, who in turn, sent them to the Kane County state’s attorney’s office for an official review.

I briefly spoke with BPD deputy chief Eric Blowers who told me that, in this case, the tapes were submitted to the KCSAO to be “Reviewed as a whole to determine if any potential crimes were committed.” Given the current social climate, I fully understand why the BPD was so quick to pass the buck, but we all know damn well that it wouldn’t have gone that far had the fight involved white students or a black monitor and black student.

Apparently, I’m the only one brave – or stupid – enough to apply the requisite keen perception of the obvious to this situation. Something about angels and fools, right?

Despite the fact that he did exactly the right thing, the state’s attorney’s office determined “there was no probable cause to criminally charge the campus monitor,” which ain’t exactly a ringing endorsement. That runs something along the line of when my readers tell me that I “don’t completely suck.” Meanwhile, the monitor remains on administrative leave until the D101 completes their own investigation.

Really? The district is somehow going to conduct a more thorough inquiry than the state’s attorney’s office? This insanity begs the question, “Who in their right mind would work as any kind of monitor for D101?”

Let’s say, out of fear for exactly what’s happening to him now, or worse, our monitor hesitated just long enough for one of those students to pull a knife and do some real damage. He would be excoriated for his inaction (think Uvalde), pilloried for allowing a student to be wounded or worse, and fired never to work in any school district again.

The school district would be sued for any student injuries, too.

Or let’s say the monitor swiftly attempted to deescalate the situation, and when that didn’t work, he correctly restrained an almost-impossible-to-control student while she was literally assaulting as he somehow managed to call for help because he didn’t want to even accidently injure the student.

He would be praised and given a raise, right? NO, HE WOULDN’T!

Because that’s exactly what happened and he’s already been excoriated in the press, investigated by the Batavia police and state’s attorney’s office, and placed on administrative leave by his employer who really should be fully supporting him. Whoever said, “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” was certainly onto something.

Had the monitor even slightly erred in what was clearly a tense and rapidly developing situation, the Batavia school district would’ve cut him loose and sold him out faster than a January 6th insurrectionist trying to cut a plea deal.

So once again, considering this quintessential no-win situation, who in their flippin’ right mind would work as a monitor in any school district anywhere? I would humbly advise the remaining D101 monitors to walk away before they become the next victim.

Ask any teacher and they’ll tell you that school fights are skyrocketing as a result of the COVID mitigations destroying children’s already

questionable capacity for conflict resolution.

Furthermore, this young women should be charged with two counts of assault, suspended for the maximum the statute will allow, and brought before the school board for expulsion. But we know none of that will happen because she’s…well…you know.

As is required, I reached out to D101 spokesperson Holly Dietchman who, once again, failed to respond to answer the simplest of questions. The Batavia school district is notorious for this kind of arrogance because they consistently think they can get away with ignoring the folks who pay their salaries.

It’s generally difficult to determine if a juvenile is charged with a crime because the court system unduly protects them, but after applying the unique resources at my disposal I can tell you that she hasn’t had to face a judge.

Look, I understand the Batavia school district is trying to do their best under some very difficult circumstances and a superintendent willing to stand up to the Cancel Culture is even rarer than a teacher who doesn’t think they’re a social justice warrior. But that doesn’t begin to absolve superintendent Lisa Hichens and her administrators from doing the right thing here.

And the fact that she simply refuses to do so will be a lesson her students won’t soon forget.