ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Lost Sight of the Principle of the Thing

The Tustin Unified School District is locked in a long contract dispute with its teachers that has resulted in some teachers’ refusing to give out homework assignments. Students understandably regard themselves as interested parties in the labor dispute, and to register their dissatisfaction over not getting homework, more than 1,000 of them staged a protest at Foothill High School last week. Unfortunately, the school’s administration has overreacted to the demonstration and further displeased not only the teachers but students and parents as well.

The latest twist in the dispute centers around the dismissal of Edmund Cronin, a transfer student who helped organize the protest. The administration says he argued with Principal James Ryan during the demonstration, the last straw in a series of transgressions that allegedly included tardiness and unexcused absences. Cronin’s teachers were upset enough with the dismissal to complain about it to Ryan. Although some teachers may sympathize with Cronin, their willingness to speak on his behalf also suggests at least something positive about him as a student. At the minimum, he deserved a fairer hearing.

As if the flap over Cronin weren’t enough, the principal decided to place 110 other students on probation and put notices about their participation in the demonstration in their disciplinary files. The school board has been scrambling ever since to explain to angry parents that material in disciplinary files does not go to colleges or employers, and that if there are no further incidents this school year, the notices will be taken out of the files and students will be taken off probation.

What’s missing in this mess is any sense that school administrators appreciated the concern the students were expressing about their education when they protested. They were, after all, asking for homework! Students look to school authorities for understanding and wisdom. In this case, all they got in response was overbearing authority.

It would have made more sense if the students had been allowed a peaceful assembly without consequences. After all, the school system’s dispute is with its teachers. Now, everybody is unhappy, and the environment for reaching a contract settlement has been made even more difficult.