Archive for the ‘Discipline’ Category

Too little time or too much?

A judge today sentenced former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi to 30 days in jail and 300 hours of community service for using a video camera to spy on his gay roommate, Tyler Clementi, during a romantic encounter in the dorm. Clementi later jumped from a bridge to his death.

The sentence didn’t satisfy either side. Ravi’s attorneys argued that he shouldn’t spend any time in jail, while prosecutors pushed for a much longer sentence for the charges, including invasion of privacy, witness tampering, tampering of evidence and a hate crime based on bias intimidation.

Telling the crowded courtroom that Ravi had no prior record, Judge Glenn Berman said, “I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi … but I do believe he acted out of colossal insensitivity.”

This tragic case mobilized people all over the country to address the frequent bullying of gay teens.

According to the LA Times:

Judge Glenn Berman addressed Ravi before announcing his …

Continue reading Roommate in Rutgers spying/suicide case gets 30 days in jail. Is that fair? »

Given that there are far better and more effective ways to discipline students, why would schools risk lawsuits and criminal charges by striking children?

I still don’t understand how we teach kids not to hit people by hitting them.

Paddlings are often recalled on this blog with wistfulness as if they were a vanishing Southern staple — in the tradition of pickup trucks and pickled okra. It’s time to get rid of paddling in schools. (I would also like to get rid of pickled okra but my husband loves it.)

Schools should not physically discipline children. Suspend them. Call the parents. Send them home. But don’t hit them. It’s wrong. It invites complaints and lawsuits. And it teaches kids to use force to make their points.

Here’s yet another story on yet another spanking incident, this time in a private school where parents apparently have to approve the physical disciplining of their kids:

A family is complaining that their 11-year-old son was paddled excessively as punishment …

Continue reading Can’t we get paddling out of all schools once and for all? »

A judge has granted an injunction allowing Jake Zimmerman, one of the East Paulding students arrested for a senior prank that escalated to costly vandalism, to attend his graduation ceremony. The judge overruled the school board, which voted last month to bar the student from attending.

Class president, Zimmerman admitted painting a skull and crossbones on the road outside the school, saying it was an annual tradition for seniors. But he said he left the scene before fellow pranksters moved to the school and painted vehicles and buildings, causing $7,500 in damage.

The school system suspended him for the duration of his high school career, banishing him to an alternative school. Unlike most of the teens, he appealed the decision, but the school board denied his appeal last month. Then, a school board member made a motion to heap on more punishment: prohibiting Zimmerman from attending his graduation ceremony. The teen said Wednesday that the board voted 6-1 in favor of …

Continue reading Judge shows more mercy toward accused East Paulding High vandal than school board »

The state Department of Education released its list of Alert Schools today.

The new DOE accountability designations — priority schools, focus schools and reward schools — replace the “needs improvement” label in No Child Left Behind that educators deemed unclear and unhelpful. These three designations target  “Title I” schools that have a high percentage of low-income students. DOE also designated a fourth category, “alert schools,” so the state can focus on struggling schools that do not necessarily have a high percentage of low-income students.

DOE defines Alert Schools are those that need to raise student achievement on statewide assessments in the areas of graduation rate for high schools and subgroup performance and subject performance for elementary and middle schools. Alert Schools can be Title I Schools or Non-Title I Schools.

The criteria used to identify Alert Schools are:

(1) Graduation Alert Schools: High Schools whose subgroup …

Continue reading State DOE releases list of Alert Schools today »

This rates as one of the most moving education stories I’ve read in a long time.

It is about a law student who fled his war-ravaged homeland for America, took a job as a janitor at Columbia University, learned English and now, at age 52, earned a degree at the the university.

He is a remarkable man. And he has a story worth sharing.

From AJC.com. (This is only an excerpt. Try to read the full piece by AP reporter Verena Dobni.)

NEW YORK — For years, Gac Filipaj mopped floors, cleaned toilets and took out trash at Columbia University. A refugee from war-torn Yugoslavia, he eked out a living working for the Ivy League school. But Sunday was payback time: The 52-year-old janitor donned a cap and gown to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in classics.

As a Columbia employee, he didn’t have to pay for the classes he took. His favorite subject was the Roman philosopher and statesman Seneca, the janitor said during a break from his work at Lerner Hall, the student union …

Continue reading A story to inspire us all: Immigrant janitor earns Columbia degree »

The APS cheating scandal has led the system to pursue principal firings in schools where there was widespread cheating by classroom teachers.

But some principals counter that they did not order teachers to cheat, so why are they to blame when their employees do the wrong thing. Are they responsible for the actions of their teachers? Even if they should have known something was amiss, what if they didn’t?

In the AJC story this week on her APS tribunal hearing, Slater Elementary School principal Selena Dukes Walton contended,  “I am not responsible for something I did not know about. I’m not responsible for the teacher.”

But in an interview with the AJC last week, APS Superintendent Erroll Davis said, “When principals say to me that ‘The investigators’ report said I wasn’t involved, why am I being removed from the job?’ I say, ‘Absolutely, you did not cheat but you failed. I put the malleable lives of young children in your hands and you failed.”’

Davis said, “You …

Continue reading Are principals accountable for the cheating on their watch? Should they be fired? »

A reader sent me this story out of the Albany Herald about the school system reimbursing a parent for a bond after a student was arrested for using a profanity toward a teacher. The reader wrote, “I think it’s a first for any school system and a new low for Dougherty.”

I was surprised to see a school system using its funds to pay bond for a student. The new story addresses the questions of the legality of such an expenditure.

It appears that the school-based police officer made the decision to arrest the student, and the administration did not agree. (The story says a request had been made to police to send the superintendent’s office all warrants for arrest of Dougherty County School System students.)

While this story is about the unique aspect of reimbursing a student’s bond, it also points to the more universal truth that high school principals and their school resource/police officers don’t always agree on how students should be disciplined or whether an arrest should …

Continue reading Dougherty system reimburses parent for student’s bond after profanity arrest at school »

In a family photo, Robert Champion demonstrates the flair that earned him the prestigious drum major role in the famous FAMU band.

The AJC is reporting that 13 people have been charged in the death of Robert Champion, a Florida A&M University drum major from DeKalb.

The beating death of the Southwest DeKalb High grad in November brought attention to the dangerous culture of hazing on campuses, but particularly in the famed Marching 100 of FAMU.

When Champion was killed, I spoke to Hank Nuwer, the author of four books on hazing. Among his books are “Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking” and “Broken Pledges: the Deadly Rite of Hazing.”

A journalism professor at Franklin College in Indiana, Nuwer explained in a telephone interview why college students and band members endure hazing that turns vicious and sometimes deadly. “We cannot get enough of wanting to be wanted. Students think that joining this fraternity or this band constitutes …

Continue reading FAMU hazing death of DeKalb grad: 13 people charged »

I received this note from a Georgia teacher and am sharing it with the author’s permission as it provides an example of why a school might resort to bringing in police to respond to even elementary schoolchildren:

This note outlines a frightening experience the teacher’s own child had this week because of an out-of-control classmate who was clearly a danger to himself and others:

As a public school teacher since 1990, I have seen my share of unruly students. I do not doubt that incidences sometimes require police intervention and even warrant the use of handcuffs. Below is an account of an incident that occurred yesterday while my fifth grade daughter was taking her math CRCT. This is her written statement:

“Today at CRCT this boy got stuck on a question and started kicking the table. The teacher told him to stop.

He ran to the curtains and wrapped himself up in it and started humming. He found this sliding door and went in and found a wooden board and started beating the wall …

Continue reading Handcuffing children: A teacher shares his child’s scary experience with a classmate »

The AJC’s Christian Boone spoke today with the parents of the handcuffed Milledgeville kindergartner Salecia Johnson.

As we all expected, this story is shifting to a national stage.

What remains unclear is whether this little girl has had a history of outbursts. The Milledgeville police chief said earlier this week that the principal said Salecia had run away from the school before so we can assume her past behavior played a role in the school’s decision to bring in police. A representative of the family denied that the child had run away from the school.

It remains unclear what strategies the school had in place to deal with Salecia, and whether those strategies were tried before police were called.

Here is an excerpt of the AJC interview:

Salecia was there too, and on her best behavior as she demonstrated for reporters how her hands were cuffed from the back. “It hurted,” she said.

The action was taken after police were called by Creekside Elementary School’s principal, …

Continue reading Handcuffed kindergartner story is not going away. Still a lot we don’t know. »