ZeroIntelligence.net

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’d requested the text of a letter sent to parents of children attending Ilion Junior-Senior High School in Ilion, New York. Principal Renee J. Rudd was kind enough to mail me a copy. I quote it in its entirety:

May 4, 2007

Dear Parents and Guardians:

As you know, the Viriginia Tech incident and the recent anniversary of Columbine bring significant sensitivity to us all. When students make inappropriate comments, threats, or speak of violence in any way, we must expeditiously react to each and every situation. No more are we allowed to tolerate any incident of this nature.

Based upon the report of inappropriate comments, threats, or the potential of violence, we will thoroughly investigate the situation, meet with parents/guardians, and contact the Ilion Police Department. It is no longer acceptable to make a comment and then say, “I was only kidding.”

I respectfully ask parents and guardians to review the following with your son/daughter:

1. If you hear of any inappropriate comment, threat, or act of violence, immediately report the information to [Dean of Students] Mr. [Dale] Turner, Ms. Rudd, a Counselor, or any staff member at school. Be sure to also share the information with parents/guardians as soon as possible.

2. Do not joke of violence, make inappropriate comments, draw pictures, or write threatening notes as this will be taken very seriously.

3. Refrain from the bullying or harassment of any student as this can result in a potentially threatening response. Do not call other students names, make insults, or inappropriate comments about them.

Recently, students have reported situations to the administration whereby Mr. Turner and I have conducted interviews with students, teachers, staff, and parents/guardians. Disciplinary consequences were administered and we have also involved the authorities. Even though students react with the notion of “just fooling around,” it is never a joking matter. We must take each report seriously and give it the same prompt attention.

Should you learn of any potentially concerning incident, please contact my office at 895-7471. Together we can maintain a safe environment for students and staff while keeping the focus on academics. Thank you for your continued support and cooperation.

Sincerely,

[signed]

Renee J. Rudd
Principal

As suspected, this letter contradicts the more public statements that included language like, “gray area,” “not cut and dried,” and no “cookie-cutter answer.” This is zero-tolerance and promises an incredible level of oversight and investigation that make me wonder where there will be much time left over for the proposed “focus on academics.” Where is the understanding that kids are still exploring social behavior, learning what’s appropriate or not?

In fact, I can’t help but think about the way that in elementary school, teachers and parent helpers no longer tell children that they are misbehaving, but instead ask them, “Are you making a good choice right now?” This is supposed to get the child to think about his behavior, conclude that it is not a good choice, and correct himself. The assumption that children will think like this or even have adequate background to evaluate the question is deeply suspect. Fortunately, most kids see through this awkward verbal construction and get the underlying message: “Stop that right now!” After all, no one asks them if they are making a good choice when they are behaving well. Kids need to be able to explore social interaction in the same way they should be exploring knowledge and be able to make mistakes without having their lives torn apart.

The most glaring problems in this letter are the lack of any real definition of “inappropriate” and the all-encompassing nature of the ban, as in “speak of violence in any way.” Consider the following things that are now banned by a strict reading of this policy:

The Utica Observer Dispatch reports on the nearby village of Ilion’s decision to establish a zero tolerance policy toward threatening language. I’ve emailed the prinicipal and vice principal of the school to see if I can get the text of a letter sent to parents describing the policy.

In the meantime, I’m amazed that they would suggest instituting a zero tolerance policy. “Threatening language” is incredibly vague. What exactly they will do in response to a threat is unclear, but the article suggests it could include closing the school while the threat is assessed. I would think they would be amazed at themselves, too, since these quotes from the article suggest they should know better:

Ilion Parent Rebecca Laymon said the question of what constitutes a serious threat was complicated. “The sad thing of it is it’s a gray area,” she said. “If you take every little thing as a threat, you’ll be sending letters home constantly. There’s got to be a happy medium between something minute and something major.”…

Ilion School Superintendent Robert Service said the question of whether to release information relating to the threat had been a complex one. “It’s not cut and dried,” he said….

Ilion Police Chief Timothy Parisi said there was no “cookie-cutter answer” to determine what constitutes a real threat when it came to students….

Let’s sum up: one of the two quoted parents, the school superintendent, and the police chief all go on record saying that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, then the village institutes a zero tolerance policy, the epitome of one-size-fits-all solutions. How incredibly puzzling.

She wrote the word “Okay” on her desk. She is thirteen years old and was removed from the school in handcuffs by police officers. WCBS-TV has more details.

Graffiti applied to school property is not okay. Tackling problems like graffiti have a good track record in lowering overall crime levels. New York City, where this incident took place, knows that better than most places in that sending police after graffiti vandals and fare-beaters in the subway system had a very positive effect in bringing down other crime. In essence, showing that even low-end crime will not be tolerated appears to convince those that would commit more serious crimes to think twice or at least take it somewhere else.

The key, though, is consistency and appropriate response. For example, putting this girl on publicly visible clean-up duty and handling it that way every time would be much more effective than an unusual and overblown response just this one time. This response just makes the administration seem crazy rather than holding a reasoned respect for rule of law coupled with a desire to educate.

An Associated Report (on the CTV.ca website, for example) describes yet another controversy stemming from the outrage-inducing “Vagina Monologues” as three honors students receive in-school suspension for the use of the word “vagina” during a Friday evening event.

The school principal, Richard Leprine, claims the suspension is for disobeying an order to not use the word. The girls did disobey, even going so far as to speak the word in unison when they got to that point in the reading. However, the principal doesn’t actually have a right to suspend their right to free expression, so the girls are under no obligation to follow such an order and a subsequent punishment is an abuse of power.

Most telling to me is Leprine’s quote in the AP article: The school “recognizes and respects student freedom of expression,” Leprine said. “That right, however, is not unfettered.”

As has been previously discussed on this site and others, the only fetters are when such speech indicates a threat to the safety of others within the school. Disagreement about when speech ascends to the level of threats notwithstanding, I think we’re not going to find anyone arguing that the word “vagina” threatens anyone’s safety.

I think this particular play is silly. The girls knew they were going to spark a controversy. As you’ll see in the photo that accompanies the article, they are happy they got the reaction they did and probably went through their suspension pleased to be there, too, because of the reason why.

Nonetheless, good for them for highlighting once again the tendency of public schools to over-reach given authority.

Penfield School District standing by its decision to suspend athletes

Between 150 and 250 students, some from Penfield High School in the Penfield Central School District, attended a party in Brighton, NY. Some left when drugs and alcohol made their presence known. Everybody left when the Brighton PD busted up the party.

The Penfield School District wants to suspend everybody who was at the party, regardless of whether the student imbibed or toked, or even if the student was there when the illegal substances were present. They’re looking for students to inform on their fellows in order to fill the gaols.

“To use the kids to rat on each other is wrong and you’re not really getting a truthful answer and your screwing up kids lives,” said parent Marguerite Mckee.
…
Brighton police investigators tell NEWS 10NBC that as of Monday no arrests have been made and not a single citation was given out the night of the party.
…
“If you go to a party that’s that big and no citations are issued and kids leave and no one’s questioned and everything is done after the fact then its mud in their face,” said Mckee.

But the district isn’t seeing it that way. In a statement released Monday school leaders say quote: “We have an obligation to not only uphold school policy but also the law”.

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Judge slams officials at Middletown schools

In October of 2003 an 11 year-old student of Twin Towers Middle School made a drawing at a slumber party. It had two gravestones with teachers’ names on them. The party host found the drawing the next day and alerted the police who then alerted the school. The school immediately suspended the girl.

In a sharply worded ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Brieant refused to throw out a case brought against [Middeltown City School District], former acting Superintendent Patricia McLeod, and Gordon Dean, the principal of Twin Towers Middle School, where the girl was and still is a student.

The judge determined that the district officials violated the girl’s rights to free speech as well as due process, and that “the defendants knew clearly that their Code of Conduct did not apply to off-campus conduct that was not related to school functions.”

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‘Disposition’ Emerges as Issue at Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College’s School of Education, part of the City of New York college system, is looking beyond the basics when evaluating a student’s abilities. The new criteria include a prospective teacher’s commitment to social justice and other elements of their ‘disposition’.

It should be noted that the School of Education at Brooklyn college is a state school. Additionally, it is the only accredited education school in the system.

Critics of the assessment policy warned that aspiring teachers are being judged on how closely their political views are aligned with their instructor’s. Ultimately, they said, teacher candidates could be ousted from the School of Education if they are found to have the wrong dispositions.

“All of these buzz words don’t seem to mean anything until you look and see how they’re being implemented,” a prominent history professor at Brooklyn College, Robert David Johnson, said. “Dispositions is an empty vessel that could be filled with any agenda you want,” he said.

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New York public school revokes suspension of Sikh student

One of the five articles of faith in the Sikh religion is the wearing of a kirpan. This is a small replica knife with a dull blade meant to remind the wearer that it is their duty to act against injustice and stand up for the defenseless. The Greenburgh Central School District decided that the kirpan worn by 15 year-old Amandeep Singh was a weapon and suspended him for eight days.

For over seven years, Amandeep attended local public schools and continuously observed all five articles of his faith, including the wearing of the kirpan, without any incident. Many of his teachers were aware of his kirpan and specifically commended him for his dedication to his faith. None ever told him that his kirpan–which was duller than a butter knife and secured underneath his clothes–posed any sort of danger.

Without explanation, school officials suddenly reversed course in February 2005 and declared Amandeep’s kirpan to be a prohibited “weapon.” Moreover, they refused to allow him to set foot on school grounds unless he abandoned his article of faith.

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School board member resigns

Updated 10 February 2005: Full text of Richard Jones’ resignation speach at bottom of post.

Richard Jones resigned his position on the Jamesville-DeWitt Board of Education. Zero tolerance came to his attention when his daughter was suspended under a no-tolerance alcohol policy.

He says she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time but because of the policy she was guilty by association.

“It’s a horror story. It is totally un-American. It doesn’t give kids the right to due process. It’s a Draconian form of punishment, and kids that are emotionally unstable are having terrible times dealing with this…kids that are stable become Cynics,” Jones said.

I can’t decide whether I’m impressed or not. On the one hand he was a board member who obviously never bothered to consider the ramifications of zero tolerance until they hit home. On the other hand, once they were thrown in his face he quickly realized just how bad they are. On the third hand, he resigned the only position that could help to get rid of them.

Your thoughts?
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Teacher arrested in principal slashing
Potted principal goes potty

Perhaps the reason that schools are taking on such a similarity to prisons is the abundance of criminals employed by them.

A Brooklyn teacher and her friend were arrested in the September slashing of a Brooklyn principal, the culmination of what police believe was an ongoing feud between the educators, authorities said Friday.

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