pointless (Score 3)

This comment is going to be too far down the chain for anyone to bother reading, and all this has been said elsewhere in the thread, but I feel like I need to vent anyway.

The premise of the WAVE program has multiple, fundamental flaws:

"Suspicious" kids are sometimes the least deserving of suspicion. I would have been a prime target for the WAVE program (the Pinkerton one, not the movie one) in HS. I was a loner. I wore black and camouflage. I spent hours on the computer. I listened to violent, angry music. I acted out, angered easily, had a twisted and morbid sense of humor. I was a good shot with a rifle. I was the polar opposite of the crew-cut, ultra-conservative, football-playing, prom-going, illicit-beer-drinking status quo that dominated my school. Despite all this, I'm just fine today - graduated college with distinction, have a great programming job, live in a great city, have an interesting circle of friends, make more at 23 than both my parents, combined, ever.

Many (not all) of the "symptoms" Pinkerton lists on their website aren't indicative of violent psychosis so much as they are symptoms of an endemic that fails to afflict only the soulless - the emotional tumult of being a teenager. I don't condone violence or violent acts, but to create an atmosphere where adolescent emotion is stigmatized will only increase the wall of isolation that torments many of us at this age.

This will only reinforce administrative incompetence. High school administrators are notorious for being pathologically and monumentally incapable of thinking outside the box. Example: My principal wouldn't let my senior class have the theme from "Cheers" as the class song for fear that it would glorify drinking. (Yes, true story.) As often as not, this tool will end up being used to justify/reify such baseless and capricious acts by administrators. So much of one's success or failure in high school (at least, on the books) already depends on whether the administration/faculty like you or not - I'm sure that one questionable tip on the WAVE line will provide the justification for many an administrator to crucify a good, but disliked, kid.

It sends the wrong message about interpersonal trust and loyalty. Under the WAVE program, authority figures implicitly tell kids that betraying a friend commands a price as cheap as a cheesy baseball cap/t-shirt.

It will be abused. If another group of students doesn't like you, WAVE puts you in danger of being falsely ratted out, without any accountability from the reporting party.

Yeah, there are plenty of holes in my arguments, but I'm a little pissed off right now. Okay, back to work.