Making Schools Safe for Students
As a teacher I have a few suggestions for Portola Middle School, which held a forum on how to prevent other students from being hospitalized due to beatings received on their campus (Dec. 15):
Fire the principal, the teachers and the counselors, who all failed in their job to supervise and protect the student who was beaten. He could have been killed.
Establish a zero-tolerance policy for the use of any racist, anti-Semitic or homophobic taunts by students; permanently expel anyone who uses such language.
The school district should sue the parents of the assailants for all damages caused by their children.
Until there are swift and painful consequences to everyone responsible for allowing, or engaging in, bullying on a school site, more Columbine High Schools await us on the horizon.
Ray Shelton
Glendale
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