Charlotte attorney Angela Lindsay asks that question in a powerful editorial in The Charlotte Post. Lindsay asks if it is alright to call accused cop killer Demeatrius Montgomery a thug now, and otherwise decries hang-ups about the choice of words that always seem to trip up any serious discussion of social problems in Charlotte. Lindsay explains:

Last week, I attended a political forum to discuss local issues. One particularly controversial debate began when the moderator shared her experiences with what she called the “good” kids in CMS who want to behave and learn and the other kids whom she referred to as “trash.”

Several audience members expressed their vehement disapproval of her use of the word “trash.” This is not the first time that semantics has gotten a public figure in trouble. When the mayor referred to the hooligans who got into a brawl during the Fourth of July celebration in Uptown last summer as “thugs,” he came under a lot of fire from the community.

I believe wholeheartedly that people, especially children, can be rehabilitated. But the truth of that matter is that there are kids out there who are just rotten, and they make it harder on everyone else. Many CMS teachers will tell you that they have encountered these rotten kids, and they spoil it for the whole bunch in the classroom.

The time and attention it takes for teachers to control these disruptive kids steals time away from those good kids who are behaving and really want to learn.

The moderator suggested that we separate these bad kids from the rest, but her solution was lost on those sympathizers in the audience who were offended by her word choice and chose to debate that issue instead. The real problem is that some people do not want to see a situation for what it is or refer to it as such because it might hurt someone’s feelings. But if it walks like a duck…

Talk to any CMS high school teacher and they will say the same thing — there are just bad kids who do harm to other kids in the classroom. A good kid, they will tell you, can and will be in trouble all the time if under the influence of a bad kid. A better term — that word thing again — might be a weak kid, weak in the sense of being unable to fight all the bad influences.

Yet when a teacher, an administrator, a school system, a community steps up to fight for that kid — assumes some responsibility — his or her inner goodness often carries the day. Without it, they slide into the bad pile. Year after year.

And that is the great, great harm in refusing to see, to name, to act when confronted with what is, in reality, a tiny percentage of truly bad kids.

In Charlotte we instead actually debate whether to use “adequacy” or “equity” when circumlocuting around poor performing schools. As if it matters.