My father's a Texan and I lived in Texas for a short period of time, so I have a love/hate relationship with the place. On one hand the people are fascinating, the food = delicious, some of the cities and towns (especially on the Gulf Coast) are quite beautiful and San Antonio has one of the loveliest downtowns (Alamo included) in North America, but it's always one step forward, two steps back with my father's home state.

Case in point, from 2003 to 2005 teachers and coaches approved letting the "problem" students fight out their issues in a "cage" in the boys locker room while other students watched and cheered on.

You know? Like it was "Thunderdome."

From the Dallas Morning News:

Angela Williamson said she can't forget the image of her son's swollen hand after he participated in a cage fight at South Oak Cliff High School. She said her son told her that students stood around clapping and screaming while watching the fight, as if they were in an arena.

Williamson took her son out of South Oak Cliff shortly after that day in 2004 and moved to Cedar Hill.

"I said enough is enough, and we just left," she said. "This was the norm. My son said this is what they do – let them fight in 'the cage.' "

Cage fights at the school between 2003 and 2005 have just come to light, months after the district completed an investigation. Documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News show that troubled students were sent to duke it out – with bare fists and no head protection – in a steel utility cage in an athletic locker room.

Um, how are we supposed to teach kids to use their minds and communication to solve disputes if you reinforce that beating someone you disagree with to a pulp is the correct mode of operation? You know? Unless we want a nation of violent adults, punching each other out while in the line at Starbucks or when you get overcharged at the salon. And I'm sure the police will appreciate dealing with ever more violent people when trying to maintain basic order. Unless all these maladjusted kids are going to become cops and give words "police brutality" and "excessive force" a whole new meaning.