A schoolprincipal’s rant against rule-breaking parents has gone viral after he explained how rampant the behaviour is in light of the recent college admissions scandal.
Gerry Brooks, a principal at an elementary school in Lexington, Kentucky, filmed the video of himself and uploaded it to Facebook, where it has since been viewed more than 6m times.
In the video, Brooks holds up a US Weekly magazine with Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman on the cover and says the only people that weren’t surprised by the scandal was “every educator in the whole world”.
According to Brooks, the behaviour of the parents involved in the scandal, and the daily instances where parents break school rules and policies is similar.
“You know what this is? A parent not agreeing with a policy or a rule sometimes even a law so they are just going to do whatever they want because they think it’s best for their child,” Brooks said.
The educator then gave instances where parents break rules because they think they are doing what is best for their child - including signing a slip that says their child completed an assignment when they didn’t, sending their child to school with food that is not allowed, or going around safety cones to avoid being late.
“You know who else disagrees with rules? Aunt Becky,” Brooks says as he holds up the magazine.
According to the principal, when parents break any rules, no matter how small, they are telling their children that rules don’t apply to them.
“Here’s what you are saying to your child: ‘I know this is the rule but it doesn’t apply to me,” he said, before again comparing the behaviour to Aunt Becky - who also “saw rules and thought it didn’t apply to them”.
The video has since been shared more than 92,000 times and liked more than 64,000 times by parents and other educators.
“You hit the nail on the head. Love it,” one person wrote.
Another said: “So true. As a teacher, I hear and see this every day.”
As for why parents think it is okay to break rules, Brooks told CNN that he thinks it stems from “love” for their children.
“I think it is a misunderstanding of what is best for your child,” Brooks told the news outlet.
“They truly love their children and think they know what is best, rather than following rules and setting examples.”
Loughlin and her husband were arrested last month alongside dozens of other parents for taking illegal measures to get their children accepted into colleges.
