Arkansas school board successfully removes itself from decision making process
Crossett Board Puts Suspension Policy In Student Handbook
The Crossett School Board has finally approved updating the Student Handbook to include its suspension policy. The policy was approved over a year and a half ago. This procrastination is bad enough but the policy itself is even worse.
Under the policy, principals can suspend a student for violating district policy, and an appeal can only be made to the superintendent, not to the school board. According to Robert Cornelius, the board only gets involved concerning expulsions.
Yes, you read that correctly. The Crossett Board crafted a suspension policy that excludes them from the decision making and appeals processes. I wish I could do this at my job. Wait, maybe I can. Using the Crossett Method I’ll just change the policies to exclude myself from my job responsibilities. I’ll actually update the published policies in a year or so to let everybody know about the changes.
I’ve been reading this site for about four or five weeks. Jim has aptly named the site “Zero Intelligence.” What I think would be an improvement would be a “sentencing guidlines” for school infractions that could be adopted by school boards across the country that would set approprite penalties for infractions with similar fact patterns.
I started thinking of this because of the Supreme Court’s ruling last week on the Federal Sentencing Guidlines. Even though the Court found the guidelines unconstitutional as a mandatory restriction on judges, it is okay as a suggested framework.
A particular federal crime may call for a sentence of up to 10 years. Under the SG, the previously required sentence would vary depending on such factors as the criminal history of the offender, the magnitude of the crime ($ stolen, # of ounces of pot, etc.) and many other factors. Two separate point scores would be calculated — one for the nature of the crime and one for the criminal history of the offender. The intersection of these two scores is found on a grid and the sentnce is revealed.
The creation of such a system of guidlines for school infractions might provide a little sanity in punishments dished out. There would be more boxes to check for the principal, but a pen knife inadvertently brought to school would not receive the same punishment as a switch blade. Bringing a prescription drug to school would not receive the same penalty as cocaine.
Developing such a system would take a lot of work. It would require analyzing many different fact patterns and coming up with workable categories and assigning some type of point system and related penalty framework. It would allow the penalty to be based on some common sense and not dish out absurd expulsions like the instant case.
Hey Jim, why don’t you start drafting a proposal and floating for us to review?????
Ken - I would rather see individuals acknowledge that they must make decisions and they are responsible for their actions, rather than trying to come up with Yet Another System of categories, boxes and rules. One of the main problems with Zero Intelligence policies is the insistence that “the policy MUST be followed, there can be no exceptions”. That way lies madness, and the further trashing of the concepts of choice and responsibility.
It looks as though you are having problems with your local school board as well as I do. See: www.bbschoolexaminer.blogspot.com