1) Student who "acts up" in class.
Teacher first speaks to student, then provides warning to student,
detention, followed by sending student out of classroom to office. This
assumes no progress is made in changing behavior. Student is then spoken
to by administtrator, with specific consequenses stated for continuing poor
behavior. Discussion with parent or parents may follow, with detention, or
suspension as outcomes. In school, Saturday suspension is now common as
suspension out of school only reinforces bad behavior. Every incident
reported to teh office is documented. Most behavior problems are cleared
up by this time. A few "hard cases" still remain. If behavior continues,
then a history of student behavior is produced, and student is brought to
the board for expulsion or possibly refered to the alternative school.
Most expulsions are permenant, and involve being prohibited from being on
any school grounds, period. This means no dances, games, summer
activities, etc. An expelled student can apply to the board for
readmittance. All of the above assumes the student is personnally
responsible for their behavior.
2) Student who refused to participate in school.
This is the passive resistance type of behavior. A student that attends
school, doesn't "act up" in class, but doesn't participate in the learning
enviroment. Teachers discuss the problem with students, and try to involve
parents in the process. The counselers are usually quieried and some steps
are taken to "help" the student. Yet again, the assumption is made by the
district that the student is personnally responsible for their behavior.
Should we expell the above student?
I feel it is the role of the district to provide a learning enviroment for
all students. It is not the role of the district to force feed any
student. We do have a responsibility to provide parents notice of problems
relating to academics. We do have a responsibility to try and find ways to
reach all students. Yet we also have a resposnsibility to provide equal
time for students who are responding to the learning enviroment.
John Danahy
jdanahy@turbonet.com