Bull elephants (everyday dads) to the rescue
Exclusive: Patrice Lewis lauds Louisiana men who stemmed school violence by just showing up
By Patrice Lewis
Published October 29, 2021 at 7:22pm

Let me tell you a story.

In Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa, biologists kept finding dead and mutilated carcasses of rhinos. Dozens of them. Worse, the pattern of wounds on the rhinos indicated the killings could only have happened by a larger animal. As it turns out, gangs of aggressive adolescent male elephants were rampaging through the park, killing rhinos (among other species).

Upon its creation, this particular park had been "seeded" with elephants from other locations. Because huge bull elephants are extremely difficult to transport, biologists focused on introducing young males, females and babies.

The trouble was, when those young males grew into teenagers, they had no bull elephants to teach them adult behavior – specifically, how to handle a condition of enhanced testosterone specific to elephants called musth. As a result, gangs of out-of-control adolescents – crazy with testosterone – rampaged about, killing other animals and fighting aggressively among themselves, sometimes to the death.

"The normal safeguard is when an elephant in musth encounters a bigger bull elephant, he immediately drops out of musth as he knows his testosterone cannot compete," relates this BBC Earth article.

"Six large bulls were introduced from Kruger National Park, who towered over the adolescents, and literally within hours, the teen thugs had dropped out of musth," notes the article. "No more rhinos have been killed since by rampaging youngsters."

The bull elephants didn't beat the adolescents into submission. On the contrary, all they had to do was be there. Their very presence was enough to steady the younger males, create a balance within the herd dynamics and restore peace among the elephant population.

The name of the BBC Earth article I've been quoting? "Teenage elephants need a father figure."

Yes, I'm sure you can see where this is going.

Last month, a high school in Shreveport, Louisiana, was in deep trouble. A brutal week of fighting in school saw 23 students arrested in three days. A local sheriff said he feared the students involved would either end up in jail or dead if the violence continued: "We have a gang problem there. We have several gangs that are trying to one up each other and trying to act like grown men when they are just kids."

These teens were suffering from a condition of enhanced testosterone specific to humans called adolescence. Desperate parents knew something had to change, so they brought in some bull elephants. Yes, dads showed up.

"Some dads decided to take matters into their own hands," notes this article. "They formed Dads on Duty – a group of about 40 dads who take shifts spending time at the school … greeting students in the morning and helping maintain a positive environment for learning, rather than fighting. The students say it's working – and the numbers prove it. There hasn't been a single incident on campus since the dads showed up."

Read that again: There hasn't been a single incident on campus since the dads showed up.

These men aren't throwing their weight around. They're not beating rogue teens into submission or being aggressive in any way. They don't need to. Their very presence is enough to calm the kids – especially teenage boys – down. After all, if anyone can understand what a teenage boy is going through, it's a dad who has "been there, done that."

Their tactics? They simply interact with the students: teasing, encouraging, giving the occasional stern look, making dad jokes. "And it's that perfect mix of tough love and gentle ribbing that dads do so well that has helped transform this school," says the article.

Why are the dads there? "Because not everybody has a father figure at home – or a male, period, in their life. So just to be here makes a big difference," the dads said. Who'da thunk the mere presence of some bull elephants could make such a difference?

But it is. Students say the school feels both happier and safer. I seldom read news articles these days that make me grin from ear to ear, but this one did. Watch this video and see if you don't smile too.

Fatherlessness has reached crisis proportions in the last few decades. Starting in the 1960s, feminism encouraged sexual liberation and discouraged the "oppressive" patriarchy of a two-parent family structure. Fatherlessness exploded and – half a century later – shows no signs of slowing down. The statistics are grim: 63% of child suicides, 85% of all children with behavioral disorders and 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. Fatherless teen girls are eight times more likely to get pregnant.

But the left ignores the data and continues its assault on the family. Society – especially public education – supports and deifies Marx and his protégé Engels as models of how utopia should be. The abolition of the nuclear family is one of the underpinnings of Marxism and can be found in "The Communist Manifesto." You can read the "Communists' Ten-Point Plan for Erasing Families" here.

Feminists continue to call for society to "dismantle the patriarchy." The left is determined to redefine and destroy the family, especially the influence of those pesky bull elephants. Well, we now have positive proof where this leads. The high school in Shreveport is simply a microcosm of the end results.

Until the dads stepped up. This down-home crisis intervention team illustrates the desperate need of all children for a father or a father figure. Let's hear it for bull elephants!

When interviewing these Dads on Duty, the media seemed genuinely mystified, even shocked, at the dads' stunning success despite their lack of training in psychology, school counseling, or law enforcement. But it merely illustrates what most leftists won't admit: Kids, especially boys, don't need highly degreed psychologists and counselors. THEY NEED DADS, just like those adolescent elephants. Why is this so hard to understand?

"Men are the vaccine," write Jason Whitlock on The Blaze. "Feminist leaders are vaccine deniers. … Men are not perfect. But society will not be improved by diminishing our responsibilities and roles. The key to improving society is making men live up to their responsibilities and play the role designed by God."

The government is not our father here on earth. Dads are. God bless every "bull elephant" who stepped up to the plate to be a dad at this school.

https://www.wnd.com/2021/10/bull-elephan...ontent=breaking