A root cause of Zero Tolerance
Updated 04 June 2004: Parents rally to support teachers, school board meets, nobody is fired. (Details at bottom of post)
Teachers’ decision to drink on field trip peeves parents
This site spends a lot of time chronicling zero tolerance abuses and not so much explaining the root causes of zero tolerance itself. This news article gives me a chance to showcase one of the reasons that school administrations embrace zero tolerance policies. Quite often these policies serve as a shield against unreasonable or overprotective parents. A minority of parents will pursue frivolous items with dogged determination and overreact horribly to any perceived injustice to their child. They know fully well that the squeaky wheel gets the grease and they use that knowledge to excellent effect. These are exactly the type of parent who will fight the school when it’s time to help them; precisely the type of parent that schools want to protect themselves from.
Six teachers from Oxford Central School chaperoned an eighth grade class on a three day trip to Gettysburg and Washington DC (I took this exact trip from Freehold, NJ when I was in the eighth grade). On each of the evenings the teachers had an alcoholic beverage with dinner. That’s a single beverage.
The teachers should have set an example for the students, said Jennifer Klimko, also an eighth-grade parent.
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Though firing the teachers would be a “steep punishment,” Klimko said it’s a possibility.“I just think what they did was a foolish thing and it could end up costing them their jobs,” she said. “That’s a shame.”
Linda Quick, the parent of an eighth-grader, agreed the chaperones are good teachers, but she said she is very upset by their behavior.“I have the utmost respect for some of those teachers that went on the trip because I’ve known them for years. But it’s a no-no,” Quick said. “I’m sorry, these teachers are wrong. I hope every one of them gets fired. I am going to push until something is done and not just a slap on the wrist.”
Her son, Don Quick, who also has a child in the eighth grade, said a fund-raiser for the school’s field trips could not be held at the local fire hall because the hall had a bar.
“I wouldn’t have sent my kid (on the trip) if I thought they would’ve been drinking,” Don Quick said. “If they can’t refrain from drinking for a few days, they shouldn’t be on the trip. It s like they re out there having a party instead of watching our kids.”
Remember that all of this is over one drink with dinner. Klimko implies that an adult drinking an adult beverage with dinner is a bad influence on the children. Linda respects them but wants every one of them to lose their jobs because of one drink each. Don equates a drink with dinner as having a party. All of them throughout this article refer to “drinking” and not to “a drink”.
Chief School Administrator Dennis Wolf said no action would be taken until the regular board meeting on June 15.
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Wolf said the school board is still investigating the incident and declined to comment. However, he did say he has only received two phone calls from parents about the incident.Though a school policy prohibiting smoking, drinking and drug use on school property applies on field trips, the teachers were not provided with copies of that policy and were not aware of the rules, Wolf said.
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“I’m still disturbed that these teachers, who have been dedicated professionals for years and years — over 100 years of experience combined — because of one incident, they’re going to be dragged through the mud,” Wolf said. “I find that unconscionable. They’re good people.”
It looks like the teachers have good support from the administration so hopefully they won’t be too harshly treated here. If they were not even advised of the policy it’s hard to see how they can be held responsible for violating it when their actual actions were very reasonable. Still, this is the sort of attack that drives a wedge between schools and parents. When this sort of reaction happens to a reasonable discipline decision, a zero tolerance policy starts looking better and better.
UPDATE
Teachers faulted for drinking get district parents’ support
About 20 parents voiced their support Wednesday for six teachers who drank alcohol while chaperoning an overnight field trip.
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“These teachers are being raked over the coals,” said Charlene Finn. “I have a real hard time with them being made scapegoats, being made out to the public to be incompetent and they’re far from it.”Finn said only a vocal minority of parents are upset about the teachers’ behavior.
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About 50 more parents wrote letters and signed petitions in support of the teachers.
The school board met to determine the fate of the teachers. They didn’t announce what punishment would be given but noted that options of a letter of reprimand or having the teachers make a presentation about how teacher behavior impacts kids were discussed. The board did not consider termination.
Chief School Administrator Dennis Wolf is tasked with preparing a corrective action plan. They’ve already gone to the effort of actually giving the teachers copies of the rules now so I’m not sure what more could be required but he’s got a month to come up with something.
I can’t quite grasp the structure of the Quick family. Linda Quick is a parent of an eighth-grader. Her son, Don Quick, also has a child in the eighth grade. Linda Quick, then, must have a child and a grandchild (the child of her son) in the same eighth grade class, which strikes me as highly unusual. It’s possible the report meant to say that her husband, Don, also has a child in the eighth grade. That would be normally unremarkable if the article is talking about one child. However, if this is both Don’s and Linda’s second marriage, and their previous marriages each produced a child at about the same time, these separate children could simultaneously be in the eighth grade. I’d guess that would be a lot more likely than having a child and a grandchild simultaneously in the eighth grade.
If the teacher promises not to drink in front of the kids on field trips, will the parents promise not to drink in front of their kids at home or any formal dinners? Afterall, not only are the teachers setting an example to the students during the day, but the parents must keep up that example during the night. If a parent is unable to no drink in front of their children, does that mean they lose their job to parent their children?
I don’t think so. I think what parents do in the privacy of their own home is their business. Consumption of alcohol is still legal for adults. It’s legal for teachers to have a drink in a restaurant on their own time, but these teachers did it on a class trip. They were not on their own time.
They were not on their own time.
So, are we to assume that they were being paid overtime for the entire 3 days? And, what about the mini-bars that were likely in their hotel rooms. Were those off limits, too? They are adults, for goodness sake. Let’s try to treat them as such, ok?
A wise man once said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. (Some would say the term “wise” is a gigantic understatement.)
The greatest influencers a child has are his parents. Unless they have never had an alcoholic drink in front of their children it appears to me the parents are teaching their children that “standards” only apply to others. They, the parents, are exempt. If the children follow that example won’t they make great citizens.
As for the punishment they are demanding, isn’t it a bit harsh? After all an adult taking a drink is legal even if it wasn’t the wisest move they could have made in this circumstance. To the parents, should you be fired if you are ever caught speeding while on the job? I, for one, would insist upon it. Unlike the teachers you will have broken a law. Oh, I’ve forgotten. Laws only apply to others. You are exempt.
I asked my brother who teaches in NJ about teachers drinking on class trips (either privately or in front of students), and he said it would be frowned on by his district.
My sister-in-law who taught in Maryland public schools says the same thing.
“Frowned upon” doesn’t even go as far as against the rules and is worlds away from a firing offense. In this particular case it was against the rules but the teachers were never informed of those rules.
Then they should be informed. The school should be upfront about it. Maybe the school thought they should know better. My brother just surmised that it wouldn’t be a good idea. He couldn’t cite a policy, but instinctively, considering what public schools are like today, he knew that it wouldn’t be the thing to do. Some people have better survivial skills than others.
And of course, you have kids expelled for “weapons possession” from schools for bringing a GI Joe to school with a teeny little rifle. That makes no sense at all, but kids are punished for it.
When teachers and students have anything remotely to do with the public schools, they should just consider themselves entering a surreal world — sort of like Alice and the Looking Glass.
The awful thing is, the teachers were setting a wonderful example. They had one drink with a meal in a social situation. They didn’t binge. They didn’t get drunk. It seems safe to assume they didn’t act stupid. How could you ask for a better model of appropriate alcohol consumption than that?
I think the zero tolerance point is that it is the administrators’ job to make the hard calls. Their decisions will upset some and please some. They like to hide behind ZT because it frees them from having to make the hard decisions.
If the these teacher’s were not “aware” of school policy, then who is? I find it unconscionable that children are dragged though the mud for first offenses. Why not the administration? They should get at “taste” of their own medicne. If a student was caught with alcholic beverages in their pocession on this field trip, the police would be called the student would be arrested, the student would be expelled from school for not following the rules. No second chance for the student. Yes they are under age, and they should suffer the consequences. The teacher can’t be arrested because they are old enough to drink, but school rules are rules (zero tolerance for all)Teachers and students are given books as to what the rules are. Maybe homeroom and or study halls should be dedicated to teaching and informing students and teachers to the rules. Give a person a book of rules does not mean they are going to read it. In a zero tolerance world what is good for kids, is good for the administration too.
The administration was aware but not present. The teachers were unaware and present.
The point is that zero tolerance is foolish and saying it should be applied here when campaigning against it is hypocritical. Yes it is tempting to say “give them a taste of their own medicine”, it just isn’t very productive or mature.
By all accounts these are exceptional teachers. We’re talking about people who are willing to chaperone multiple overnight field trips of 7th and 8th grade kids, teachers who are highly regarded by both the administration and the parents. Do you honestly want to punish these teachers for a technical error on the part of the administration?
One question for those who want to treat the teachers differently because they are adults and off-premises. Do you support a person who is the legal age to purchase and use tobacco being able to smoke during those trips? What if it is a student? Some schools will suspend or expel a student for having tobacco on their person during these type trips as a banned substance.
What happened to prudent and reasonable? Yes, if you’re legal you can smoke. Why shouldn’t teachers have a drink with dinner? Under the circumstances, it’s well deserved and perhaps a wise decision given the stresses of dealing with a herd of 14 year olds.
I simply can’t imagine this question coming up in the bad old days when students actually learned something and the classroom was a disciplined environment and teachers enjoyed our respect. Perhaps this is progress…or perhaps this is a further reflection of the hopeless mess made of our education system by incompetent politicians and the power hungry NEA.
Well, if I was teaching in this district I would never chaparone a field trip! Teachers usually don’t get paid extra for this duty, you know! They are on-duty for no pay for the whole trip!
And what if you smoke. The whole field trip without your addiction being satisfied! I wonder if the parents will go after coffee next?
barry
That this is even an issue is beyond absurd. As a nation we are getting more ridiculous by the day. 20 years ago no one would have even batted an eyelash at this nonsense. We are going through the most ridiculous generation of parents the world has ever known. Insecure, overprotective idiots.
It might be an overstatement to say the whole generation of parents is ridiculous. It was only a “vocal minority” of parents after all.
I think the real issue is how the typical response of schools is at fault: creating a zero-tolerance policy to head off any threat of lawsuits is encouraging more and more parents to be “outraged.”
A little story from the olden days:
My mother grew up in a repressive era and home, where females were not allowed to go to high school. Though she set some kind of state record with her scores on the 8th grade final exams, she was expected to spend her high school years working as a maid and hired hand for a local farm family, rather than in school. Which she did.
She eventually got married. After having her 6th child (me), she decided to go back to finish high school. She rode the same school bus as my oldest sister, while dad stayed home and worked the farm with the rest of us kids. She doubled up on her classes and finished 4 years of classwork in 2 years, earning straight As. She had her 7th child in March, 3 months before graduation.
Days before graduation, she joined her classmates on their senior trip to Mackinac Island (Upper Michigan). While her classmates biked around the island, rode horses, etc., she sat in the bar with the teachers and chaperones and drank beer.
Their 45th class reunion is coming up this summer. Her favorite math teacher is still alive and plans to attend the reunion. She plans to buy him a beer.