Entry #20 - Feb. 1, 1999

"When does the right of the average student to attend school without abuse, harassment, physical violence or extortion take precedence over the right of an (admittedly troubled) youngster to an education at his neighborhood school?"

In some ways I lead a charmed life. Not having a homeroom, I don't have the same problems with student behavior that most classroom teachers do.

Even the most uncooperative and socially inept young people are usually pleasant enough on a one-to-one basis, or even in a small group. I might have groups from several classrooms at one time, but if a particular student can't get along with others I usually can isolate him/her, or find an individualized task at which s/he can succeed or at least be quietly engaged while I help the OTHER students!

I know that solutions are rarely that clear-cut for many other teachers, with thirty-something kids coming and going every period, and I'd have to be brain-dead not to have noticed that the number, type and severity of student behavior problems has gradually escalated over the years.

Ahhhhhh, the good old days.....or were they? Certainly I remember the days when NO student would have "talked back" to a teacher, much less use "the F-word."

Was there really more respect for authority? Somehow I doubt it (I can remember having had some mighty disrespectful thoughts about authority myself, back in the antediluvian past). What there was, that is there no longer, was fear of the consequences.

When I started teaching, "the strap" was still in use (and as far as I am aware, it is still LEGAL, but local education authorities have made it verboten in their districts). Most kids then, however much bravado they put on for their friends' benefit, did NOT want to suffer the corporal punishment or the humiliation; lesser offenders would be worried by even a mention of calling their parents.

My, how times have changed! We can no longer assume that parents support the values of the school in many instances. I vividly remember, at my previous school, an incident where the principal suspended a 10-year-old boy for fighting and rather extreme racist language (a very strict policy against racism is in effect, and all students know this). It was a cut-and-dried situation. Or so we would have thought!

The next day the boy's father was in the school office, in a rage. "Whaddya mean, you suspended my boy for calling a <ethnic minority group member> a (f-word racist epithet>! He can call any blankety blankety blank...." What startled us all was that this outraged parent was a police officer in full uniform. We knew HIS own superiors would hardly have been impressed!!

For criminal assault, or threatening with a weapon, the outcome is predictable and swift. Never mind discussing the student's problems, self-esteem or home situation -- bring a weapon to school, and bang! You're gone -- usually for a month. But other sorts of assaultive behavior, abuse and threats are not so effectively dealt with, and I believe we don't really have consensus on what should be done in these cases.

When does the right of the average student to attend school without abuse, harassment, physical violence or extortion take precedence over the right of an (admittedly troubled) youngster to an education at his neighborhood school? I read a fascinating book about two years ago: WITHOUT CONSCIENCE, by British Columbia psychologist Dr. Robert Hare, who has identified certain character traits typifying an antisocial personality. What neither he nor we know, is whether an early, EFFECTIVE intervention would help these people develop more socially acceptable ways to get their needs met.

I fear that schools are (with the best of intentions) often reinforcing the "bad" behavior and penalizing not only our "regular" kids but also the young offenders themselves, who are learning -- earlier and earlier -- that it does indeed pay to be rude, violent, abusive and confrontational.

We have several students who might fairly be described as habitual conduct problems, always for the same sorts of things: defying reasonable requests of teachers. Sexual and racial harassment of other students.Threatening and fighting. Verbal and physical abuse. Wandering the school and halls without permission. Not attending to, let alone completing, assignments. Suspected theft and extortion. I've talked teachers in other schools, and other districts, and most are in agreement that these sorts of behaviors are on the increase, and that if a critical mass exists in a class -- or a school -- the malefactors effectually hold the rest of the students hostage.

Naturally there are no easy answers to this. The acting-out students have serious personal problems, in most cases. What concerns me, though, is the absence of an open dialogue about this problem and potential solutions -- not only in our school, but in the school system, the media, and society at large.

Can we combine our nurturing/teaching mandate with a hardnosed demand for a certain level of conduct? Can students forfeit their right to an education at a neighborhood school? When there is a conflict between the rights of the individual and those of the group, what should we do? And -- do TEACHERS have a right to a workplace free of threats of assault and harassment by out-of-control students?

I didn't witness this week's blow-up, where a student reportedly threatened two different teachers and then the principal with bodily harm and property damage. Knowing the student, though, I believe the gist of it -- and I'm sure the boy did not lose control; he is very much in control at all times. However, I was certainly surprised to see the student back at school the next day. Not only back in school, but shooting baskets in the gym and having pizza instead of going to class! (There may be more to this story, of course.)

Interesting, though, that my other students picked up on it: "How come the only way you get attention around here is to be bad? If you're bad like XXXX, you don't have to do your work and you get lots of privileges!" Hmmm. If that isn't the message we want to send -- and I am sure it isn't -- then we have a problem all right. I said, "Just wait, guys. When we display your projects down in the foyer, EVERYBODY will Ooooh and Aaah at what great stuff you're doing!" I think I'll demand a pizza lunch for them all!


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COMMENTS ON THIS WEEK'S ENTRY


I am glad to see the issue of the rights of students is a problem in other inner city schools. I am a middle school teacher in the inner city also and we have the very same problems. I feel so bad for the students who do comply to the rules and suffer because so many don't.

Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone.

Kcsun@aol.com


As a parent, I am somewhat dismayed about the problem of discipline and students rights. I keep reading all of the stuff that says that it is on the parents to help their children realize the importance of attending school and working on the highest level they are capable of. Then, my kids come home (elementary and middle and high) and tell me that it is obvious that no one in the schools care about them. My three boys all arrived at this conclusion right before time to enter middle school.

They are beginning to hate school because there are so many disturbances. Almost daily there are stories to tell me about who did what to whom or all of the cursing and how the teachers "ignore it". About the cursing and fighting on the bus and the rudeness, unkindness and yelling of the bus drivers. I do not blanket all teachers with this assessment, but guilt and doubt is beginning to plague me because it seems as if private school would be better if we could afford it.

I have worked hard to prove that public school could be successful if we all worked together as parents and teachers and students. My confidence is beginning to wane watching teachers give up who are overwhelmed by the new standards, the new society.

Watching students lose respect for the teachers and the system that doesn't seem to have time to make sure they actually LEARN at their own pace so they won't give up. I sometimes feel overwhelmed, feeling as if I am crossing the line in my responsibility - that somehow I am required to do more than be the parent.

I am the student when I have to attend the class to get a grasp on the concept the teacher is trying to teach but my child (and others) can't seem to learn. I am a teacher when I help with tons of homework that the kids have not grasped (and cannot remember exactly what the teacher did to explain it until they could grasp it), yet they get it after I learn the concept and teach it to them because I have to go into the classroom (and sometimes help most of the other children also) or study the textbook if it is something too new or too much in the past for me. And I am always the parent, trying to balance everything and everyone to the best of my ability. Then, throw in the distractions at school and WHEW!