The Baltimore Sun reports on a new initiative designed to improve safety in the public schools of Baltimore. As noted in the article, Maryland’s five most dangerous schools are in Baltimore.
The good news is that the city isn’t simply jumping on the zero tolerance bandwagon:
At the same time, advocates from groups including the Open Society Institute have been pushing for in-school suspension programs and other suspension alternatives. They say that allowing violent or misbehaving students to be on the streets during school days only perpetuates crime, drug use and other social ills.
System officials - who included $700,000 for in-school suspension plans in middle schools in next year’s budget - said they want to get away from a zero-tolerance policy mandating automatic suspension or expulsion for fighting in school.
Recognition that zero tolerance policies push the problems out onto the street is an important one. Would that more local governments would think through their policies so carefully.
Cultural Tie Gets in the Way Of Graduation
Thomas Benya, a graduating senior at Maurice J. McDonough High School, was denied his diploma for violating graduation ceremony dress codes. The traditional Cherokee bola tie he wore under his gown was deemed “too skinny”. He will not receive his diploma until he attends a conference with school administrators.
The high school is sticking to its policy. The dress code is mandatory for seniors who choose to participate in the graduation ceremony. And Benya was told during a dress rehearsal Tuesday that his black bolo with a silver and onyx clasp the size of a silver dollar was “not acceptable.”
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In March, Benya’s high school sent a letter to parents and seniors explaining that “adherence to the dress code is mandatory,” with the word mandatory in bold and underlined. For girls: white dresses or skirts with white blouses. For boys: dark dress pants with white dress shirts and ties.
That left Benya’s classmates free to wear bright orange, red and striped ties under their gowns at the ceremony Wednesday at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro. One senior girl wore a headscarf and long pants for religious reasons.
“The First Amendment protects religion, and we do everything possible to honor that,” O’Malley-Simpson said. “There is nothing that requires us to follow everyone’s different cultures.”
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There is a push to give schools the authority to evaluate and medicate students without the knowledge or consent of their parents. An article at the New Media Explorer has the details.
Pharma interests have united with mental health organizations to push through legislation that would require mandatory testing and forced administration of drugs to kids in schools - without their parents’ consent.
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The big guns of America’s mental health establishment — including the American Psychiatric and Psychological Associations and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill — are making united front in support of mass mental health screening of American children — as recommended in the New Freedom Commission report.
While reading this I was hoping it was a satire piece. Unfortunately it is all too well documented with links to all of its sources.
(Tip credit to Sherri)
Bill Would Legislate Maryland Students’ Use of Sunscreen
It’s a boiling hot late spring day and your child has soccer practice at school. What do you do? If you are in many school systems in Maryland you call your doctor and ask him to write a prescription so the school will let him use sunscreen.
Four school systems require a doctor’s order for students to apply sunscreen. Eleven require at least a parent’s note. Eight systems require students to leave the product with the school health officer. Rules can vary from school to school within each system.
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Board Hears Arguments in Student’s Appeal
River Hill High School student Phillip Ashtianie was accused last year of giving a bottle of Dasani filled with vodka to another student on a school bus. After a “thorough” investigation he was suspended for 45 days. Since it was at the end of the last school year the suspension was to continue through the beginning of this school year.
You may ask why I put “thorough” in quotes. I’m not normally one to use scare quotes but in this case they seem justified.
Throughout, Ashtianie maintained his innocence, a fact noted by the hearing examiner who found insufficient evidence to uphold the suspension.
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[School system attorney Marc Blom] argued that the evidence was very strong that Ashtianie distributed alcohol, even though the student who became ill recanted his charge twice that Ashtianie gave him the bottle.
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Blom also noted that this was the �most thorough� investigation conducted by Dr. Carl Cummings, who handles suspension hearings for the superintendent.
He said Ashtianie�s mother�s [exonerating] investigation lacked credibility because it wasn�t professional and wasn�t objective, a charge [Attorney Allen Dyer, who represents the Ashtianies] called slanderous.
�Look at what the moms do for the Howard County public school system and determine how credible and what kind of quality there is,� said Dyer.
In questions from school board members, Blom acknowledged that Cummings interviewed Ashtianie and the student who drank the alcohol as well as school administrators, but no one else. Cummings also reviewed statements gathered by school staff.
Cummings testified before the hearing examiner that it �Basically came down to who do I believe.�
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Schools learn to laud the good
Some Carolina schools are looking at themselves and their neighbors and are beginning to realize that zero tolerance and concentration on punitive measures doesn’t work very well.
Kids suffer academically when suspended from school, [Russell Skiba, an Indiana University education professor] said. Even factoring in issues such as poverty and race, Indiana schools with higher suspension rates saw 49 percent of their students pass state exams — compared with 58 percent of the kids at schools with lower suspension rates.
“You put kids out of school, those kids come back, and they haven’t learned anything,” said Skiba, who wrote a report called “Zero Tolerance, Zero Evidence.” “You just get into an endless loop.”
Studies show schools write more than half their office referrals for only about 6 percent of the students. If that kind of discipline worked, some argue, the same kids wouldn’t continue to misbehave. Getting tough is more likely to create anger and resentment, said Diann Irwin, of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, who coordinates the state’s positive behavior program.
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Updated 09 June 2004: New information from Jack Mitcham (at bottom of post)
School yearbooks recalled to remove racial epithet
Perry Hall High School seniors received their yearbooks last week. On Tuesday a student discovered a racial slur next to the picture of a bi-racial student. It had been placed there by his white friend as a joke and is a term they comfortably use with each other. The school immediately recalled the yearbooks. At this point the story takes a turn South.
Yesterday school officials were calling seniors individually and asking them to return their yearbooks, said school system spokesman Charles A. Herndon. Students who will not return their yearbooks might not be allowed to participate in tomorrow’s graduation ceremonies, he said.
Does anybody else see shades of 1984 here? “�MemRec insert, yearbook doubleplus ungood possible thoughtcrime raceword, new file yearbook unraceword postdate.� (Thank you to James Lileks for reminding me of this Orwellism.)
Their desire to ‘correct’ something that’s already happened is so great that they are threatening and forcing the students to comply with their wishes. Turn that yearbook in so this mistake can be vanished or you don’t graduate. A much better option would be to allow students who want their copies to be corrected to turn theirs in and to allow those who don’t care to simply keep theirs as they are.
(Tip credit to Jack Mitcham)
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Student gets max for including steak knife in his project
The fifth grader at Grasonville Elementary School had a project called “What would you take on a camping trip and why?” and had assembled a number of tools in a decorated shoe box. One of the items was a steak knife. He turned in his project on May 10 and a week later he presented it to his class. The teacher then saw the steak knife and contacted Principal Anne Dodge. Things rapidly went downhill for the student.
“It was a tool. He brought in different types of tools,” Dodge said. She, too, said the student never threatened anyone.
The student and his possessions were removed from the classroom, a parent was notified and the sheriff’s office contacted, Dodge said. Dfc. Kristy L. Murphy investigated.
Parents of children in that reading class were contacted by phone and a letter went home to them, Dodge said.
He was suspended for 10 days. There is no note in the article about whether the police investigation ended with criminal charges filed.
The child had included a knife among tools to take on a camping trip. The teacher had possession of it for an entire week. Nobody was ever threatened. And they called the cops on him? Ah, the magic of zero tolerance.
(Tip credit to Best of the Web and Richard Emerson)
Police ‘Pat Down’ of Students Falls Under Scrutiny
Sheriff John F. Price IV says there was probable cause to engage in random searches without a warrant, including forcing 2 female students to partially disrobe.
About 250 book bags in 12 Kent County High School classrooms were scanned by drug-sniffing dogs during the search, the sheriff said. He said the dogs “alerted” on 18 of the bags, whose owners were asked to undergo additional searches. Sixteen students were subjected to “pat-down” searches, while the other two received what the sheriff would describe only as “more thorough searches.”
One of the two, Heather Gore, 15, said Thursday that a female deputy ordered her to remove her skirt, then lifted her tank top, exposing her breasts. Gore said she was then told to spread her legs while the officer checked her underwear.
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Students struggle to set up Republican club
Sparrows Point High School is about 90% liberal and appears to be dedicated to making sure that percentage doesn’t fall.
Five students at Sparrows Point High School in northern Baltimore County say school administrators and teachers have intentionally delayed their efforts to form a Teenage Republican Club because they don’t want to have a conservative club at a liberal school.
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Principal Robert SantaCroce initially refused to allow the students to form the club. When he changed his mind, the club’s faculty adviser withdrew his support.
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