Kulturkampf

[Ethan]

The irony about this whole debate is this. Teachers are (in most places in the US anyway) mandatory reporters. That means if you think your kids parents are abusing them, you have to report it. 

The school staff that push the rhetoric to allow for keeping secrets from parents are telling on themselves in both directions. Either you think these kids are in abusive homes, and aren't reporting it or you have no evidence of abuse but want to leverage the veil of "well it could happen!" to convince yourselve and others that you're behaving nobly.

The hypothetical scenario is always: We can't tell because Lilith/Billy's dad will smack them.
It's never the equally likely scenario that Lilith/Billy's dad loves them, so will be understanding and try to help them in this journey, making the home environment much less stressful for Lilith/Billy.

It's also very possible Lilith/Billy's dad will smack them if they fail their math test or are turbulent in class. So might as well stop reporting grades and behaviour as well.