A Miami-Dade police officer’s 14-year-old daughter dissed her teacher at Pinecrest Cove Preparatory Academy charter school, and her father was called to the school.  The video at the link shows the ensuing abuse: the “father” whipped his daughter with his belt, slugged her, yanked her hair.  Fortunately, no serious physical damage appears to have been done, but I have to wonder about the emotional damage, I have to wonder about the quality of her home life, and I have to wonder whether that life might have been a factor in her relationship with her teacher.

But that’s not what the only thing wrong here (the cop has been charged with a felony child abuse beef, so there may be a measure of justice coming on that front).

Look at the video carefully.  The abuse occurs in the school’s office with two school employees alternately watching and going about their business (one is at the bottom of the video imagery; she’s not easy to see).  They didn’t lift a finger to intervene, they didn’t say a word in intervention.  The employee plainly visible just goes on about her job, if not her duty; the other employee is similarly uninvolved.  The reporter narrating the scene says this woman was pregnant and feared for her baby’s welfare as well as the 14-year-old; maybe that’s an excuse.  But she waited until the cop had left before she called any authority or otherwise reported the beating.  The reporter didn’t say anything about the other woman, who was similarly too timid to act, but without an apparent excuse for her avoidance.

This…timidity…gives charter schools a bad name.  And it’s despicable in its own right.