I ran across a story about a journalism student at Missouri who was arrested for assaulting a professor in a computer lab. Seems the student, Jay Dee Bush, brought a drink to the lab, which is a no-no. The prof asked him to remove it, and when he wouldn’t she picked it up and threw it away. Things got testy and Bush pushed the prof.
Meanwhile another student in the lab, one David Teeghman, intervened to try to help the prof, but Bush turned on Teeghman and choked him while other students pulled Bush off Teeghman. OK. No big deal. A little skirmish and then Teeghman gets back to work, right? Uh, no (emphasis added):
Teeghman was shaken up over the incident. He said he walked back to his apartment crying and called his parents, who then reported the incident to MU police.
This is a journalism student, folks. When he graduates he might have to be confronting crooked politicians, or violent union members staking out a state capitol. How well is he going to do that when he wells up and cries because he got in a bit of a tussle with a jerk in class?
I blame the lefty, non-confrontational, passive-aggressive parenting of the past 30 years. Kids have been taught to tattle to the teacher the first time anyone gets in their way. And when something does go wrong, they can’t handle the adversity. If I’m a city editor out there wondering who my next new reporter will be, I would be hoping with all my heart that it’s not this guy.
