Sunday, September 09, 2007

According to School Board Policy and the Student Behavior Handbook

"Students are expected to adhere to any uniform dress policy which has been adopted at their school."

Board policy specifically prohibits sagging.

Yet if you go to any middle or high school in the APS; you will find students sagging.



This is not about sagging.

It is about the permission, of prohibited behavior.

It is about those charged with enforcing discipline policies,
ignoring their responsibilities.

It is about teachers with neither resources nor support
having to deal with chronically disruptive students
who longer respond to the authority of adults.

It is about students who are allowed do what they want,
rather than create a little turmoil.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Teenagers and rebellion and testing limits is a relationship as old as time.
Around our countries, administrators are spinning out of control because pants are sagging.
If the most rebellious and limit testing a teen does is sag his, or her, pants,... then that's a positive thing. Most of these saggers are good kids, but they want to look cool and "stylish"... big stupiud deal! Let's work on real problems!
Refer to Shakespear's phrase" Much adiue about nothing" [sorry if spelling is wrong].

ched macquigg said...

The issue of sagging, is not the hill I would die on either.

But that argument has a place in deciding whether or not there will be a rule against sagging; not in the decision about whether or not a rule against sagging will be enforced.

Choosing not to enforce rules; letting students choose which rules they will obey; leads to all rules being ignored.

Anonymous said...

School administrators tell staff to enforce rules consistantly and fairly. When a staff person brings a sagger or other rule breaking offense to the principal to deal with, or tries to deal with themselves, they are doing as they are EXPECTED to do, right?

Sometimes, with even handed, fair, non truth-spinning administrators, yes. But if you are at a school where hiding rule and crime infractions is routine, so they can look better to the public, and get promoted to the "Peter Principal" (yes, spelled wrong on purpose), then staff members who are enforcing rules are merely spinning their wheels while admin is spinning their VERSION of the "truth".

Ched and I can relate specific, demonstrated attempts by specific, individual "Peter Principals" that ignored rule infractions and crimes we brought to their attention. Sagging is just one of many examples that we can both tell you about over coffee.

I am fairly liberal for someone who has been in law enforcement; I hope APS uses all its prevention and intervention services to their fullest extent, I don't care if the criminal justice system gets another number from my efforts at enforcing rules, I just want the kid to get some attention and for him/her to remediate their behavior.

An anonymous report from each High School detailing their drug/alcohol referals to the FIT team (or whatever acronym is being used now) will show how successful APS CAN be at remediating behavior issues properly. And a report from certain schools with crooked administrators? If they respond, it will show how hard they worked to keep even Batttery, Assault, Aggravated Battery and Attempted Murders out of the public eye.

I recently recieved a report from the PED via IPRA request that details 6 incidents at Charter Vocational High School from 2002 to 2004. I called the cops out to four serious batteries, an alcohol overdose, an Aggravated battery on my person, an attempt to run me over, and a there at to kill me. All from late 2003 to erly 2004, a 5 month period. Yet, none of those reported crimes, with police reports written, were reported by administration to PED. in 2003 and 2004, only TWO incidents were reported to PED. What happened to the rest, even just the ones I called for help on?

I have incontravertible proof that Danny Moon and any Charter Vocational High administrator in charge of complying with the violence and vandalism/school crime reporting law DECIDED not to do so, decided to not comply with the law, decided to BREAK the law in this fashion.

This is just one example of how this happens. It happens all the time. All a good reporter would have to do is request calls for service at a school address, then compare to the self-reported incidents each school has with PED.

T.J. Wilhelm - Any chance you might do something on this? I have one school done already, and will hand over the documents to you to start you out. Or any other reporter. Jessica Garrate? Coleen Heild? Anyone?

J. Lopez

Anonymous said...

This IS the issue in a nutshell. Administrators constantly tell teachers to send a kid in violation of the dress code to the office. The teachers daily take away all sorts of contraband. And guess whose tires are slashed at the end of the day? The administrator who let them go or the teacher who turned them in. I can't blame the teachers who have been through this turning a blind eye to everything anymore.