 |
Ask Judy:
|
Dear Readers,
Last week’s question concerned a student theft of another student’s property. Judging from the number of comments this column received, this question clearly struck a nerve with parents. Debate among readers ranged from blaming the incident on the student for bringing a forbidden cell phone to school, to the school’s not having the personnel to adjudicate incidents.
To be fair, it can take many hours of a teacher’s or guidance counselor’s time to resolve incidents like this, to the detriment of other work. And yes, cell phones are banned from school, although some schools turn a blind eye to the rule. But my bottom line is this: it is the schools’ responsibility to respond to parents’ concerns. Schools may not be technically guilty in cases of theft, but they are guilty of ignoring or dismissing parents’ and students’ problems. Schools should develop a specific routine and designate personnel to handle such incidents, the routine should be included in the safety plan, and the safety plan should be given out to all parents. The Parents Association must be part of the team that sets up the plan.
An even more important question not mentioned by commenters is, how can the school establish a climate that engenders respect for the school community and reduces student-to-student crime, bullying, and other discipline problems? My answer: spend a lot of time working toward that goal. Here are some ways to do that:
- Students and staff develop a mutually agreed upon code of conduct,
- institute a behavior intervention system to reward kids for good deeds, cooperation, and other positive actions;
- train upper graders or older kids from other schools to act as peer mediators who intervene to resolve issues;
- build into the schedule regularly scheduled advisory groups to serve as a forum to air and help resolve school problems;
- include character education classes that teach respect for others and the consequences of bad behavior choices.
Finally, with these programs implemented, staff should carry out swift and predictable responses to bad behavior.
There are outside groups to help establish such programs, including Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, Center for Social and Emotional Education and Effective Alternatives in Reconciliation services, known as EARS.
Now is the time to start planning next year’s climate-building. Parents Associations might want to take the lead and start to plan at your next meeting.
Judy
Have a school question for Judy? Search archives | Contact Judy
Subscribe to 
“Debate among readers ranged from blaming the incident on the student for bringing a forbidden cell phone to school, to the school’s not having the personnel to adjudicate incidents.”
In none of the postings does the student receive blame for the theft (which, it turns out was not characterized as such by the parent). That one of the missing items was a cell phonoe was merely an explanation as to why the incident wouldn’t have been a top priority in my school.
I understand that websites with advertising try to be controversial to get more visitors, and I understand the desire to keep the excitement going by extending the topic another week. However, please don’t foster the animosity already in existence due to the entire system being top heavy. There are real people with real hearts and heads and skins sending their children to school *and* teaching our children.
Comment by Rebecca — May 5, 2009 @ 2:24 pm
Can you forget about the phone already? what about the keys? what about a simple phone call with an apology from the boys parents? what if all these items were taken from one of teacher’s pocketbook? or the principal? i am pretty sure it would be handle on a different level.
Comment by upset parent — May 5, 2009 @ 6:57 pm