Szdfan wrote: ↑Sat Feb 11, 2023 7:29 am
There are certain procedures and processes that my school is required by law to follow. I imagine that Florida and the Miami-Dade District has similar procedures.
Data plays a huge role in making decisions in education and schools. An incident like what had happened at Coconut Palm Academy is indicative that something has gone wrong, but we are arguing over incomplete information that doesn't give a full picture of what's actually going on. Outrage is easy; solving systematic problems and changing cultures is really difficult.
According to US News & World Reports, Coconut Palm Academy has 1200 students and two counselors. That's 600 students per counselor. I work for a much smaller school. The middle school and high school employs a therapist and a guidance counselor. The K-12 district employs a social worker. It's not enough.
Schools are expected to "fix" kids. A lot of our students deal with really difficult things at home -- poverty, abuse, neglect, drugs, mental health problems, etc. Dealing with these problems without parental support is even more difficult. Last semester, a parent complained to my principal that I called her five times about her son that was disrupting my class. This is not a parent I can work with to resolve her son's behavior.
Some of our students receive the message from their parents that they don't have to respect or listen to their teachers.
Public schools don't choose their students. We are required by law to accept any student that lives in our district.
We are also required by law to collect the required documentation that demonstrates the school did everything in it's power to correct a student's behavior before expelling them. There are certain types of behavior plans that we to attempt with that student. All these processes are intended to preserve the rights of the student -- even difficult students have a right to an education.
My superintendent told me Thursday that there is a bill in the Colorado legislature that would make it more difficult to suspend and expel students. I think bills like these come with good intentions, but it makes it harder for schools.
There are alternative schools in the area for high-conflict kids, but it takes a while to put students in them and the closet one is twenty miles away. Students with developmental disabilities that have IEPs (Individual Education Program) are legally almost impossible to expel.
Public Education is far from perfect. It's a dysfunctional system.
But one thing that I'm learning is that for me, teaching is a form of love. That includes loving students who are difficult and strange, who can't sit still and who are dealing with things at home that you have no idea about.
Outrage is easy. Solving problems is hard.
i largely agree with this.
outrage and dismissal directed at parents and taxpayers (like Josh) is not the answer .. regardless of high political leadership leading it.
in the OP case, even the mother of the beaten child was kind (from what i saw) toward the extremely violent bully.
a lot of people recognize the deep dysfunction.
unfortunately, esp since mid-1960’s, politicians decided to throw all (adult) social problems directly onto STUDENTS - “they’ll work it out” in schools! i was very young at the time, still, i remember having a sense that POLITICIANS were getting away with murder with this new idea: dump it on the schools, let them figure it out. what a cop-out.
most schools were mostly made up of really nice female teachers who did not resist.
they were accustomed to being dumped on.
what other group would have allowed this??
(the idea that major societal problems would be foisted on your business or company, you’re to problem-solve,” ‘catch ya later, at next election. others might have said, “no, our workload is full as it is!” “we’re teaching basics required for life, no time for social engineering experiments!”
these are adult problems,
adults should be responsible, not children being thrown together in a free for all, with hope most survive.
your thoughts seem to be mostly from a private citizen perspective, have you completed 1 year in the dysfunctional system?
to reiterate a point i tried to make earlier, wealthier schools, private schools, are not left out of these problems.
they, too, face aggression and violence between students. it’s now advanced on social media, the vast majority of incidents go unreported. even between girls. monkey-see, monkey-do. these are family/society problems, not the business of schools.
children are not born civilized.
parents are the FIRST and the FOUNDATION for socializing their children, however, all of society is to support and contribute to the LENGTHY process God designed. all cultures. all continents.
self-servng politicians have created a disaster.
throwing it all on the shoulders of schools+students was a bad turn.
if only schools+teachers would have refused to be dumped on from the start, gov schools might still be worthwhile.
the die was cast, decades later .. “what a mess!”
schools need to be allowed to set BOUNDARIES for admission. people value what they personally invest in.
before my time, students and their families SACRIFICED to get formal education.
when i was young, there were standards+expectations to be met to enter public school.
i was in very culturally mixed public schools. very. students received good educations.
every student knew about the principal’s office.
bad things happened. punishments were no surprise. parents supported teachers, and vice versa!
children knew, if they got into trouble at school, more would be waiting at home.
i didn’t know of classmates in divorced families until jr high. no matter skin color or culture.
