Discipline in Schools Must Be Consistent

Outbreaks of violence on school campuses have become so common that people are starting to see that we need standards for discipline if we expect teachers to maintain high standards for learning.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has let each campus develop its own discipline policies and procedures to reflect community standards. But it is time to create a common policy, backed up by common paperwork and procedures.

The problem is so simple that the solution is obvious (at least to any parent): Schools have failed to give appropriate consequences to inappropriate behavior, leaving the students to think they are now in charge. This subverts curricula founded on rule-based thinking: Based on the conditions you observe, what is an appropriate response? When we do not assign meaningful consequences for inappropriate actions, we create unconscious behavior.

It was unconscious behavior rather than racism that caused Dorsey’s “race riot” last year. An African American student who joined in with a group of Latino skaters was playfully tossed into a garbage can and then zapped with a Taser. The incident resulted from play that got out of hand. The situation became racial only when students started calling each other racist names.

Dorsey dealt with the problem by having a “day of dialogue” to discuss feelings, which was repeated this year. Retreating to the faculty lounge, a custodian quipped: “Giving their behavior the consequences it deserves is the dialogue they need!” Unfortunately, that dialogue is rare.

That is because schools are so busy dealing with daily disruptions, they are unable to develop the infrastructure needed to solve these problems. Yet not having proper procedures saps everybody’s will and sets people at odds with each other.

Teachers who refer students for detention seldom find out whether students serve it because there is no paper trail to follow.

Deans say they have no time to deal with referrals for minor offenses such as chewing gum in class, even though such referrals are made because the student is habitually defying rules. Administrators wear themselves out lecturing hordes of students rounded up each day in tardy sweeps, but they rarely assign detention because no one is willing to watch over that many students after school.

Students have learned that the more they misbehave, the more they can get away with. Their first impulse is to resist authority. Hundreds wander the campus and scream down the hallways.

As if this weren’t bad enough, some administrators who describe themselves as “student advocates” have decided to protect students against teachers who “overreact.” This leads to students getting their friends to claim that their teacher was out of line.

Without a common purpose, effective procedures and a paper trail to show results, school personnel are not working as a team. The only ones who know how to work the system are the students.

It is easy to see things from the students’ point of view. If racism prevails, where “justice” means “just us” white people getting all the advantages, we can see why students feel justified in breaking the rules. But the freedom that results is that of chaos, not direction. Having different standards of discipline and accountability across the district is racist, if not in intent then certainly in effect. Equity demands a common policy for all.

Gregg Heacock teaches English at Dorsey High School. E-mail:

logicconex@adelphia.net.