It may be happening, but it is prohibited.

The quote, attributed only to "APS" shows up above the fold
in this morning's Journal, as part of an article on the hazing
incident at Las Vegas' Robertson High School. link sub req

It would be naive to argue that there is a school district
anywhere in which rules are not being broken.
It's the nature of the beast; if there are rules, there are
children who will try to break them.

Looking at the issue in a broader context;
we see the "permission of prohibited behavior".

As an example; sagging. Sagging is the wearing of one's pants
low enough on the buttocks to expose underwear. It is a
popular practice that for the most part flies in the face of a
stated rule.

At one point, sagging was a violation of an expressed school
board policy. And yet, it continued at every middle and senior
high school in the APS.

This is not about sagging.

It is about adults laying down rules and children ignoring
those rules in plain sight; in manifest defiance of the supposed
authority of adults.

And they get away with it; without consequence. In the APS
the student intent to sag, was so intractable, that board policy
no longer prohibits sagging. The adults made a rule, the kids
said "no way" and the rule was changed or deleted.

Sagging is not the only example of the permission of prohibited
behavior in the APS.

The most important continuing example is; chronically disruptive
students. If you ask teachers to list the things that prevent
or disrupt an educationally efficient environment, they will
say kids breaking rules, not inadvertently, but deliberately;
kids who simply do not recognize the authority of adults.

APS teachers will not be asked about the permission of
prohibited behavior. There will be no survey that documents
the problem.

Because according to the negotiated agreement; administrators
have the responsibility to enforce school and district policies.

Teachers, of course, share that responsibility; they can't call
an administrator to their classroom every time a kid breaks a
rule. But the ultimate responsibility falls upon the principal,
and above him or her, a chain of command that reaches to
the office of the superintendent.

Ask a teacher, and you will find a breakdown in discipline
that is having a profound and adverse effect on education.
Test scores, truancy, drop outs, most every problem faced
by students and teachers, has its roots in the break down
of discipline in schools.

But teachers will never be asked, problems will never be
documented, because the buck stops on an administrators
desk. And administrators, and board members, do not
gather statistics that support doubt about how well they
are doing their jobs.

The leadership of the APS does not document their own
failures. For the same reason that they will not allow an
impartial audit of the entire leadership of the APS.

They are covering their asses.

And it is just "too bad" for teachers, students, and the
community. And, oh well.