What Kinds of Children are we Raising?

I am not a parent, so take my observations and commentary as someone who has no real vested interest in a specific child, but in children as a whole. Something occurred in my classroom yesterday and it has been sticking my craw ever since.  Here's the scenario:

One of my students (whom I'll call Jane) asked to go to the bathroom, which I gave her permission to do so. About 10 minutes later, a student who is not one of my students, but is one of our more notorious students, comes barging into my classroom and heads straight to the desk where Jane was sitting. I explained to this incredibly rude student that her barging into my classroom was unacceptable and that she needed to leave. To which she replies, "Just wait, Miss, I need to get something."  I again repeated that she has no business being in my classroom and needed to leave. She blatantly ignored me and proceeded to gather up all of Jane's items (backpack, jacket, etc.) and leaves my room. As she is leaving my room, I explained that she was never to do that again and that I would be writing her up. Her reply: "Alright, miss - Shut up!"  I followed her out and asked if I had heard her correctly, to which she replied, "yeah, shut up!" I then proceeded to lecture my class about this student's incredibly rude behavior and the consequences of this type of behavior when they are out in the world. I then had to write up both girls - one for her rude behavior and the other for being AWOL.

When I mentioned this confrontation to the assistant principal, he sort of chortled and said "That's [student's name] being [student's name]." Yes, he laughed about it, but did tell me to write it up and that he will "talk" to her. <sigh> The behavior that many of the students in my school display and the lack of consequences for their behavior saddens me. Following up yesterday's incident, today I had two separate run ins with each student and so the battle of wills begins.

As I mentioned, the extremely impertinent student is notorious. Last year, this child spent most of her time in school cutting class and wandering the halls. Therefore, to "fix" this behavior, administration made a deal with the student that if she attends certain core classes, she can "work" in the office helping the school secretary with odd jobs during her other classes. What the...? What? How is that remotely helping this girl?

So it comes back to my question: What kinds of children are we raising? When we allow children exhibit bad behavior and fail to set up certain boundaries and consequences for their actions, we end up with a bunch of entitled, obnoxious brats who feel that they can do whatever they want -- or at least, this is the case where I work. I'm hoping this is not a worldwide pandemic.

I'm not saying that children should not have independent thoughts and that they need to be little robots at all times.  That would be awful, but when independence crosses over into insolence, that's when we have problems. What is going to happen to these children when they have to go out into the world and be productive adults? They are going to have a very unpleasant awakening!

Rant over.  I feel better having gotten that off my chest.