From school sporting events and recitals to board of education meetings and awards assemblies, plenty of adults have set terrible examples for the kids in their lives by behaving badly. A recent example from Queen of Apostles School in Toledo is particularly bothersome.

One parent has been charged with felonious assault after a fight broke out, allegedly over seating, according to a report by WTVG.

The event? A kindergarten graduation ceremony that had to be rescheduled because of the melee.

Though the fight is under investigation, cell phone video appears to show a large group of people confronting one another. One even takes his shirt off and raises his fists, according to WTVG. One of the people involved in the incident is reportedly a kindergarten teacher, himself.

Imagine being one of the children who may have witnessed such a thing, and was told the ceremony could not continue.

Too many adults are engaging in similarly mortifying behavior, and the trend seems to be growing.

A report by the National Federation of State High School Associations showed that between 2018 and 2021, approximately 50,000 high school referees left their posts, citing poor behavior by adults. Sports officials have said parents are the most frequent aggressors during youth sporting events.

“I think we live in a time where we do tend to feel less collective responsibility, and we are hyper-focused on our own kids and their own well-being,” said psychologist Richard Weissbourd, a senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, told Education Week.

On the other hand, in some of these incidents, it doesn’t sound as though the adults were thinking about their children at all.

We’ve got to do better. Parents have plenty of perfectly acceptable tools for embarrassing their children that don’t actually involve bad (or criminal) behavior and violence. Set an example of respect, self-control and even a willingness to admit when someone else may be right. Then our kids can hold their heads high, rather than lowering them in shame.