The Suburban Burden

As a society we demand too much out of our suburbs. We expect them to be affordable, to be clean, to be safe, and to be homogenous. We turn their streets into playgrounds, their parks into birthday party venues, and their trees into makeshift houses. Adults see in them the California dream. Children see in them what their parents allow them to see, usually happiness, sunshine, and laughter along with the occasional butterfly or rainbow. The point is reality tends to be a completely subjective construction based on one's perspective. Choosing to hear, see, and speak no evil by no means prevents it from happening. We have been conditioned to believe that acknowledging the shortcomings of the suburbs is somehow a reflection on the people who live there. The true "reality" is that the suburbs often turn out to be more than some bargained for.

The secret of the suburbs that I came up with revolves around the idea of personal responsibility and accountability. Too often mischievous activities go unchecked or unpunished in the suburbs. Last year Tesoro High School in Orange County had a pair of students write in their assigned journals how they planned to torture, mutilate, and kill their teacher. Various articles go into great detail and get extremely graphic in describing the students' plot. Both students were suspended for a short period of time and as one article cited, "This being California however the two have continued to play on the school football team." In another copycat death threat, two students at my alma mater left threatening and graphic notes depicting the death of their teacher lying on their desk's after class. Sure enough my former honors chemistry teacher found them and reported the students, fearing her life. Once again the students went before a school board hearing and were allowed to return to school without any consequences. Even the principal of my high school had recommended the two students be expelled. My local paper noted, "We are astounded that a teacher could have death threats and the students be allowed to come back on campus with the perception that they got away with it," Sepulveda said. "They are back at our campus getting high-fives."

In the wake of numerous school shootings, I am amazed that more severe disciplinary action was not taken against these students. I guess what these stories really expose about suburbanites is their relentless avoidance of scandal at all costs. Acknowledging that a larger problem exists would be incriminating for many people. These children are products of their environments and their upbringings, nothing more nothing less. The real secret is that the suburbs don't always do their part to produce fine and upstanding citizens as most of us expect them to.

Here are the two links if anyone is interested:

http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_334220021.html

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1152152.php