Ruth M. Wilson
School Boards of Education recognizes that any society must establish rules and regulations in order to insure the safety and welfare of its members. School Boards further recognize that a system is a society who has a mission to educate its members so that they may become productive participants in our society. The success of any set of rules depends upon all members being aware of the rules, and then enforcing those rules using a consistent and fair procedure. The procedure being one in which recognizes the individual rights of the member as well as his or her obligations to society. Therefore, to accomplish this end, Boards of Education have establish a certain approved policy. (Hamden, CT. school calendar)
Local school authorities have power to make reasonable rules in a reasonable manner. Reasonable punishment would involve not only punishment itself, but the procedure for determining it...whether a rule has been actually violated, what the circumstances were, and why the rule had been violated.
Host rules and regulations that govern student conduct are established on the local level. Some are set up by the local board of education policy, and others are established by the superintendent, the principal, or the classroom teacher. In this structure, it is the way all the parts of one thing fit together. In the local school system we have the triangle structure. The superintendent oversees the principal. The principal oversees the teachers, and the teachers oversee the students.
Each student who has had any difficulty is accorded due process. Edwin Neuman, Civil Rights author, states that: “due process” requires that a person receive notice of the charge or claim against him/her on demand, that he or she be furnished with a
bill-of-particulars
specifying the exact nature of such charge or claim. Secondly, due process requires an atmosphere in which a
fair hearing
can be conducted. Of all the guarantees of personal liberty, due process is probably the most flexible, since it can be made to cover all situations.” This process gives the insurance that each individual in the school system has the right to be heard.
Discipline
: Student Suspension
This case,
Goss v. Lopez
, stemmed from race related student riots at Central High School in Columbus, Ohio in 1971. The principal suspended seventy-five students for racial disruptions in the lunchroom and damage to school property. However, Dwight Lopez insisted he was innocent, and he did not get a hearing to tell his side of the story. Unfortunately, he was suspended with eight other students. Dwight and the remaining eight students brought their case to court.
A federal court hearing the case agreed with the students that they had not had the benefit of the due process procedure. And that they had a right to a hearing. The school disagreed and appealed the decision. On January 2, 1975, the court upheld the decision of the three judge panel by a vote of 5-4. Stating under the 14th Amendment, people cannot be denied liberty without due process.
The schools district’s lawyer had argued that there is a constitutional right to education, so due process does not protect against suspension. The lawyers would also say that due process only applies if a student suffered a “severe loss.” Lopez’s punishment, the loss of ten school days was not too severe. The federal court disagreed.
In The Defense of Children
, authors Franklin Zimring and Rayman L. Solomon present the question of school management. Are schools like a family model where problems are resolved in a way a family resolves their problems, or are school more like a bureaucratic model that is followed in society. In the family model, the principal would usually act as the father in resolving problems just as the father would do in his home. The family model structure has changed with the advent of the one parent family. Consequently, by the time the court heard the
Goss v. Lopez
case many things had changed. Due process had come upon the scene. With the granting of hearings before suspension, this meant the accused individual had a right to defend his or herself against the charge being presented. No longer would principals have the option of excluding an individual without the student presenting his or her “side of the story”.
Dress and Appearance
The courts in recent years have considered many cases dealing with student dress and appearance. Because of the different fact situations, courts have reached different conclusions regarding the power of the board of education to regulate student dress fads. The Supreme Court declined to review any of the cases, so this left the basic question unclear.
It is clear that school boards may ban particular kinds of dress that is detrimental to proper discipline or morals in school. Likewise, schools may require students not to wear particular items that are of gang related jewelry...heavy gold chains, different color beads, and rosary beads. The following directive was issued to the New Haven School System Staff as part of the student dress code rules:
Students will not be allowed to wear any clothing, jewelry or any other markings that may be identified as gang related.
Students will be suspended immediately from school if they insist on bringing these items into school, or on school property. There are to be no exceptions to this directive without the authorization of the Superintendent’s office.
School Attendance
Do students have a duty to attend school regularly? Yes! Truancy is a ground for finding a child delinquent in Juvenile Court. Superintendents of schools, local officials, may file a complaint with the Superior Court alleging that the Student’s family is a family with service needs (section 46b-149). The court refers the complaint to the probation officer for investigation. Section 10-154 imposes a duty upon parents to insure school attendance. Absences are a major problem at all levels of school and students who miss a lesson loses an opportunity to learn. Too many missed absences can result in failure or dropping out of school. According to research, unexcused absences decrease when parents are promptly informed that their children are skipping school.
Can grades be lowered because of truancy? In Knight v. Board of Education of Tri-Point School District, it was decided that: “Most high school grading systems have commingled factors of pupil’s conduct with scholastic attainment in rendering grades...truancy is the lack of effort and the plaintiff here exhibited a lack of effort.” (The Handbook of CT. Law)
The New Haven School System Manual
states that good attendance is essential to success in school. Every day attendance is expected and academic achievement is direct related to a student’s attendance.
It is the responsibility of the parents to insure that their children attend school. In cases of long term illness parents are expected to contact the school...so that a special program of instruction can be developed. If a student cuts classes or school without permission, the school will call home and take appropriate disciplinary action.
In accordance with this, it is the policy of the New Haven School Board that promotion may be withheld if a student is absent a total of 20 or more days. Suspension days will be included in the 20 days.
Suspension and Expulsion
In New Haven School System, student suspensions have been places in three major categories: 1) three days or less for disruption, insubordination, fighting, use of obscene language, threatening, harassing, or intimidating others. 2) three days or more/considered police referral, theft, gambling, vandalism, trespassing, leaving school grounds without permission. 3) Ten days, referred to police department/considered for expulsion for setting off a false alarm (intentionally), arson, sexual offenses, bomb threats, sale and use of fireworks, physical assault, sale of narcotics or alcohol.
Lastly, the problem of dangerous weapons in school. If a student is in possession of, threatens with, or uses any dangerous weapon (i.e., gun, knife) or any instrument that can be deemed a dangerous weapon on school property, on a school vehicle, or at a school related function, the above procedure will be immediately enforced.
Violent School—Safe Schools
(1978) compiled these statistics on schools affected by crime or violence:
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1. Personal violence: About 24 million secondary school students (11%) have something stolen from them in a typical month. About 1.3% of the students (282,000) report being attacked in a month. Relatively few are injured seriously enough to need medical attention. Young teenagers in cities run a greater risk of violence in school than elsewhere, except in high crime neighborhoods.
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2. Vandalism: Over 25% of all schools are subject to vandalism in a given month. The average cost of an act of vandalism is $81. Ten percent of schools are burglarized, at an average cost per burglary of $183. The annual cost of school crime is estimated to be around $200 million. Other Factors: Most offenses are committed by current students. Victims and offenders are generally of the same age and sex (usually male). In a majority of cases, victims and offenders are also of the same race. The chances of interracial violence are highest in schools where students of one race outnumber those of another. Although the preceding report was published in 1978, a current study by The Carnegie Foundation (1992) appears to substantiate the findings.
The report recently concluded a study that warns of risks to adolescents. It stated that the average eighth student is usually between the age of 14 or 15. About a quarter of all young adolescents this age are engaged in behaviors that are harmful or dangerous to themselves or others.
Of the 28 million adolescents between the ages of 10 and 18, approximately 7 million are at serious risk of being harmed by health and even life threatening activity, as well as school failure.
The teenagers who appear to be grown up basically healthy are not immune from the risk since most of them lack sufficient skills in problem solving. Some recommendations made by the foundation are:
Beef up youth and community organizations, so that they can better compete with gangs for membership. These groups should actively encourage health promotion activities.
Establish safety zones around schools, and initiate conflict resolution programs.
Work to ban the sale and possession of unregistered hand guns.
Some schools have initiated conflict resolution programs to help the teenager to have another avenue to solve problems. The procedure is as follows:
When you have a problem: stop, calm down, think before you act, state the problem and how you feel. Set a positive goal, think of lots of solutions, think ahead to the consequences.
Go ahead and try the best plan.
With this program in my school, I am sure it has defused chaotic situations. We would, I think, have more disruptions if we didn’t have this problem solving program in place thanks to The Yale-New Haven Social Solving Program.
Hopefully, this proverb will come to pass. Train up the child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.
I have
four
objectives for this unit. The first objective is to have students read and comprehend the significance of the term Duo Process. By giving them the written word, they will be able to be knowledgeable of their rights.
The
second
objective is to show students how decisions made by courts can differ according to various circumstances and the perception of the presiding judge or judges.
The
third
objective is to teach the students that “a little knowledge” goes a long way . . .the benefits of knowledge adds to their advantage.
The
fourth
objective is to teach students how to use primary sources for understanding present day situations and to expose them to the methods and procedures used to enlighten their school days.
After each selection, the student will do lessons in reading, spelling and language arts. The skill lessons will consist of finding the main idea, topic sentence, comprehension and oral discussion.
The following are
sample lessons
for each of the above objectives.