Virtually everyone agrees. We need to take a more effective, more enlightened approach to school discipline.
Suspending students, we’ve seen, often enables their dropping out. Having minority students suspended in rates far out of proportion to their percentage of enrollment, as we’ve also seen, is still unacceptable. “Zero-tolerance” scenarios, as we well know, can be double-edged, pedagogical swords, where discipline and standards meet overkill and unintended consequences.
Naturally, the issue begot a task force, which was preceded by a series of community “chats.” And subsequent recommendations. And consequent revisions in student-conduct policies as recently passed by the Hillsborough County School Board.
As a result, students will not be suspended for being late and the vaguely-worded “inappropriate behavior” will no longer be an offense. And area superintendents will have to personally sign off on all suspensions of more than five days. And hopefully suspended students will be allowed to make up missed work.
Two points.
First, this only starts with statistics. We know objectively that we have a persistent problem. But this is, more importantly and subjectively, about kids. About a quarter don’t graduate. Many of those dropping out were products of multiple suspensions. We know the correlation. The marginals become the departed.
As Superintendent Jeff Eakins has bluntly noted: “We didn’t get into this business to see students fail. We got into this business to help students be successful.” This doesn’t mean channeling Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society,” Edward James Olmos in “Stand and Deliver” or Sidney Poitier in “To Sir, With Love.” But it does mean examining all the variables that are part of the give-and-take of the teaching process.
We also know the societal upshots of failure. Drop outs are short-changed lives–as well as problematic contributors to society. This becomes everybody’s problem.
Second, it’s important to look beyond properly-prepared, relevant teachers and administrators for help. That includes guidance counselors, social service workers, community churches, local recreational organizations and even Julianne Holt’s public defender office.
But let’s not kid ourselves. Poor parenting–or no parenting–is the biggest factor in school discipline.
If students walk through education’s portals with values and expectations already at odds with a learning culture, their chances of a suspension-free path to graduation have already been compromised. That’s the stark reality–and getting literal about what constitutes “inappropriate behavior” won’t really matter.
If parents–or responsible adults of whatever stripe–aren’t on board, nothing changes. If there’s no reinforcement of what’s being taught academically and what’s being imparted behaviorally and ethically, nothing improves. The onus is on those with the biggest influence and most seniority to prepare their kids for the reality of the classroom and the world that awaits outside.
School Board member Carol Kurdell put it in proper context. “Families have these kids six years before we ever get them,” she said. “So it’s time for the community to step up.”
Never has “it takes a village” been more applicable.