On Safe Schools
On Safe Schools
Discipline
"The Board of Education desires to prepare youth for responsible citizenship by fostering self-discipline and personal responsibility. The Board perceives that good planning, a good understanding of each child, and parent involvement can minimize the need for discipline. Teachers shall use positive conflict resolution techniques and avoid unnecessary confrontations. When misconduct occurs, staff shall make every effort to identify and correct the causes of the students' behavior.
Board policies and regulations shall delineate acceptable student conduct and provide the basis for sound disciplinary practices. Each school shall develop disciplinary rules in accordance with law to meet the school's individual needs.
Staff shall enforce disciplinary rule fairly and consistently, without regard to race, creed, color, gender, or sexual orientation.
In order to maintain safe and orderly environments, the Board shall give employees all reasonable support with respect to student discipline. If a disciplinary strategy is ineffective, another strategy shall be employed. Continually disruptive students may be assigned to alternative programs or removed from the school."
Personal reflection:
" . . . to prepare youth for responsible citizenship by fostering self-discipline and personal responsibility."
Preparing our youth for responsible citizenship requires buy-in by all parties/stakeholders. First and foremost this assumes that faculty, staff, administrators, AND parent BELIEVE in the value of every student-and that this is communicated via relationships, interactions, expectations between student and adult "educators". Students who feel valued and respected for who they are as human beings and their story and how it fits into the larger picture, will take charge of their journey as students-of-life; they will hold themselves accountable for their actions/inactions; they will learn to appreciate life's obstacles as opportunities for learning and growth.
" . . . Good planning, good understanding of each child, and parent involvement can minimize need for discipline."
To effectively promote Self-Discipline and Personal Responsibility, good planning, good understanding of each child and parent involvement are indeed of utmost importance. Rules and procedures on school discipline should be regularly reviewed for effectiveness and authenticity by representatives from each of the following groups: parents, teachers, school administrators, school security personnel and students. In this way, should a disciplinary strategy prove ineffective, another strategy could be employed.
The worlds our students transition and navigate through each day (family, school, friends) are besieged by a myriad of changing realities that cause feelings of anxiety, stress, fear, anger, etc., that when unattended, can affect how students learn, act and feel. Using this understanding as a sensitivity, compassion, and a true desire to help students move forward. Parent involvement should include parent participation in the process of: education around positive conflict resolution techniques, providing for a "progressive" response to individual students, providing ongoing training of school staff, ensuring that a discipline plan is clear, readable and most importantly, culturally sensitive.
"When misconduct occurs, staff shall make every effort to identify and correct the causes for the student's behavior."
When misconduct occurs, every effort should be taken to respond and not react to a student's behavior/attitude. The school's response/action should be one of getting to the root/source of the negative conduct and confronting the reality with the assistance of counselors, administrators, and when necessary, of a cultural interpreter. Response should be to provide the kind of guidance, support and assistance that recognizes the student as a human being -- helping the student to acknowledge their actions, behavior and the need to make right of a wrong. Punitive discipline does no good to anyone--it only demeans, belittles, dehumanizes and make for continuing misconduct.
"Staff shall enforce disciplinary rules fairly and consistently, without regard to race, creed, color, gender and sexual orientation."
It is crucial that all involved are on the same page: that the rules are respectful of everyone; that there is clear understanding about the purpose and need for the rules; that self-discipline is valued, modeled, and expected. Example: It does no good to enforce a "Tardy Sweep," when a) parents are not aware of the policy, b) faculty and staff are at odds over the policy, c) students have not been involved in the determining of the policy, and d) in the actual sweep, the majority of student "caught" are of one "race or color" . . . This only contributes to feelings of being dehumanized, disrespected, and in the end to attitudes of indifference, resistance, defiance, opposition and an overall "whatever" kind of attitude by students.
Teresa Viramontes