News-Record.com

What a great idea. Can we expand that? Maybe Dot or Susan could do a "reassignment" clinic with the poor reassigned children of NHP.

Doug,

How is this different from what (I presume) the kids have already heard since the first time they misbehaved?

Though I disagree with your thoughts about the HP plan, your message in this column is right on target.

Very well written, Doug.

Personal Responsibility???????????

What a Unique Idea!!!!

I'll tell you what would solve this problem overnight.

Have the NC legislature enact a law requiring that if a child misbehaves while in school, the parent or guardian of that child, MUST leave work, travel to the school and assist in dealing with the problem.

Under the threat of the potential of losing a job as a result of a misbehaving child and having to leave work, most parents would deal with this issue in a forceful manner at home.

Oh, I forgot, most of the parents of these kids that misbehave on a consistent basis don't have REAL jobs, and whose kids are a reflection of their dysfunctional parents.

Doug????? What's this???? A homage to personal responsibility??? A return towards realility? Turn back now, Doug while you still have the chance.

Congratulations on a great column, Doug.

Thanks, Joe. I appreciate the piece on your blog about discipline and suspensions.

Thanks, SC.

Good question, jwg. Some may have heard similar messages and haven't responded.

In writing this, I had in mind the initiatives of the High Point Police Department in calling in offenders, offering community resources to help them straighten out, but threatening arrest and the toughest prosecution if they refuse to accept the offer.

Doug,

This is one of your best columns yet.

By all means a summit stressing personal responsbility. Let's also invite the principals, teachers, and students who have been the targets of violence to tell their side; how they have been wronged. Kind of like one big honest dialogue. Let's invite the people who have been victims of vandalism on their personal cars. Above all means, let's please, please invite the students who sit in class, wanting to learn but can't because of constant disruptions and rudeness by some students. Let's hear from these students how they are being cheated out of an education they want so badly.

I do really like the pilot program of community service rather than just putting a kid at home with no supervision. There needs be personal responsibility and consequences for actions when breaking the rules.

There needs to be rules and consequnces otherwise just through out the Guilford County Handbook for all kids.

And by all means, there should be some type of law to hold parents accountable for the kids who constantly break the rules. If parents had to pay a fine based on their kids' actions and made to come to school, maybe they would take more control of their own children.

I didn't realize that more that about 19% of the GCS middle and high school students had been suspended (based on this years enrollment: ~37,000, your statement of 7,000 students suspended and a presumption that there are very few elementary suspensions) last year. I assume that you are counting unique suspensions. If not, then how about getting the figures to show some type of distribution of kids by number of suspensions?

How about if, at the summit, any kid that was suspended {pick a number} (or more) times was required to attend: a day out of school, transportation/lunch provided by GCS, and parent(s)/guardian strongly encouraged to attend with their kid.

I like the community service idea.

oops meant to say "throw" out the handbook - in too much of a hurry - where is that computer that corrects errors?

jwg,

I haven't had time to read this report yet. But I do know with some of the past statistics as mentioned previously from speeches at school board meetings and other meetings, some of the numbers in previous reports reflect a student who has been suspended multiple times. Therefore it is hard to read the true data.

It would be good to have a report of how many are for one time suspensions and what part represents multiple suspensions.

The problem with "making parents come" to school - how do you do that? Teachers not cannot even get many parents to return phone calls or come to a student conference. This is in elementary school too. Even if some wanted to and do work, what if they can't get off work? If this could be enforced, it could be very effective.

Another preventative method that might work and help with safety issues is have a "probation" period for a kid who has had an out of school suspension say for "weapons/drug possession". To be allowed back in school he would have to report to the attendance office every morning for a certain period of time, empty his pockets and a back pack/locker search. And absolutely no cell phones allowed. Now whether this could be done legally is another story.

Doug printed a column several months ago and I had also seen this on 60 Minutes or something - where a parent is the little side friend with their kid all day. Nothing kills a teenager's "coolness" more than having his parent follow him around. Now this could be very effective it you could actually make it happen.

Barbara Ann,

I agree that you couldn't 'make' parents come to school and, even if you could, the parents may turn out to be more disruptive than the kids.

I think there really needs to be some figure rather than total suspensions. Without more info we don't know if it was 700 kids suspended 10 times each or not. There's no idea of the depth (breadth?) of the problem and how many 'repeat offenders' are allowed to stay.

jwg,

I totally agree. I wonder how we could obtain the actual breakdown. Bruce B???

On parents - you are correct - there are many that are worse than the kids - I saw this in the parent of a kindergartener last year at a school - wooooo - won't even go there - she had to be asked to leavethe parking lot or the cops would have been called - no wonder the kid is a mess.

Doug, Doug. Doug, You have me confused now. Before it was a kid from across town's responsibility, a stranger, to ride a bus for two hours a day to make sure somone in a school learned properly (provided the kid from across town's dad reached redeemer threshold and made what? more than 40K a year or was it 50? Or was it only 30?...ah, and by the way, if that kid's dad by chance spent too much time blogging and got thrown out of the house, lost his job and got divorced, or the family income suffered in some other manner, would this transported child still have the same redemptive educational powers as before or would he be dis-qualified or would he still be able to redeem maybe half a child at his new school?)...BUT NOW you're claiming it was the non-transported child's responsibility all along?
What's up with that??? Doug, your're killing me here. Please clarify. Please

jwg, there were 10,881 incidents of students suspended short term (10 days or less) last year. There were 6,484 students who were suspended short term, meaning some of them were suspended more than once.

The stats also show 518 students suspended long term (more than 10 days). I added 6,484 and 518 to get 7,000 students suspended (approximately). However, it's possible that some of the students suspend short term were also suspended long term, so the actual number could be a bit less than 7,000.

The numbers I have aren't broken down by grade.

Between your and Joe Gaurino's suggestions, I think we have a plan.

Skeet Club Sav,

This is an EXCELLENT point. I hadn't thought of this before. If there is no "racial gap" as Dr. Z pointed out but an "economic gap" what does happen when a kid's dad loses his job, or one of the parents has a major illness with medical bills that put them in the hole, etc. What then is the tranported child's actual "worth" to the city school where he was sent to "save" another student and have his "smarts" and attributes rub off.

Part of the theory was for the lower income child to see how great the higher income child had it and want to strive to achieve that level of "success". BUT what happens when the high income child has to wear the same old clothes, no new sneakers, is depressed because of his home situation, his grades suffer and he may become in teens' terms a "loser"? How can he then "save" the kid he was sent to "save"? He has now become the lower socioeconomic statistic. All the numbers change.

I know of so many middle income parents who suddenly lost their jobs due to the sour economy. Did that make their kids less worthy on the value scale?

Perhaps the next GCS school should be a boarding school (could be military style or not) where students who have been creating continual discipline problems get assigned. There they are provided with the kind of environment where they learn how to behave and show respect to both themselves and others. There would be counseling/mentoring, but little, if any, TV or video games. Here lessons on personal responsibility would be real and there would be true consequences for acting out.

There would be curfews to ensure kids are getting enough sleep and well-balanced diets. Not suggesting prison, but something much more nurturing and well-intentioned.

Could be that parents have to live there too or at least take some classes in parenting and follow the same rules.

Seems to me that until the parents take responsibility for their children and have consequences, this is all for nought.

I know it's a pipe dream.

Doug, a few more questions on busing for socio-economic balance as advocated in your recent editorial. 1)Can a person buy their way out of any "choice plans" etc. In other words, the Civil War model. For instance, could a "rich" person from Skeet Club Road go out in the mountains, find a less fortunate Scotch-Irish person, and pay them to take their place at their new randomly assigned school?

Also, you had advocated location of subsidized housing developments in neighborhoods that may not have them at present. What we're asking is; would this exempt that neighborhood from re-districting predation since there would now be people accorded less valuble status in GCS's eyes for transport elsewhere, now living in that neighborhood?

Also, as Barbara Ann touched on above, if one decided to go to Vegas or one of the tribal casinos, loses the farm, can he then plead out of busing?

Thanks,

Mr. Clark,

I agree with everything you said and it pretty much takes any hopes for debate away.

The reality of it, in my opinion, is that some students are raised to fail, interstingly enough, the parents that are raising them to fail are pretty much 100 percent unaware of what they are doing to their kids. Because, in the black community a lot of the parents are drop outs or just uninterested in book knowledge. There are always those few kids who overcome and everyone on the outside looking in says "they made it out of the ghetto, so why can't you." Those are exceptions to the norm, the focus needs to be on the norm. There is a reality that some people are just not going to get it, because they have no idea what "it" is. It's sad, because most young brothers and sisters could do do well if they had a true family life, you know with a mother and father that works, a house to live in and peace of mind. When they get suspended they are pretty much prepared for it, because failure is what is expected, when compliance with authorites is hoped for. This is not a problem that began in 2004 or 2005, this problem began many, many moons ago and will persist until some form of leadership is willing to go all out to remove this ignorance, by using all available resources for our childrens future, you know, similar to what's going on in Iraq. There is a part of the population that believes we should not, this is funny, "cut and run" cut and run what a 1960's type of statement. Oh yeah school kids is my topic. Maybe they should research the affects of slavery and the lack of a formal education during those times and see what type of residue from not being able to go to school, like white kids, and they should research how black slaves had to sneak to learn from masters kids. Then they lived in fear if they know they have learned to read, hence we had slaves that had to act ignorant. Just like in todays times it's true, some black folks love to not know educational info, they seem to act like it's a crime to know some book knowledge. It may be possible that is why traditionally you have under-achivement from black students. But as usual the majority in Greensboro is probably so afraid of the topic that we let the opporunity to learn slip right on by...

Mitchell,

Thanks for joining the discussion. I appreciate your insights on this issue. There's no doubt that problems roll down from one generation to another, and injustices of the past echo today. We can't change history, though, so we've got to deal with what's handed to us in the here and now.