Central LA Focuses on Student Behavior Problems

The Alexandria (LA) Daily Town Talk | 09-24-02 | Peters, Emily

[Theodore R.]

Discipline problems on the rise in schools Emily Peters / The Town Talk Posted on September 24, 2002

Burline Vallier, a teacher at Rosenthal Montessori School in Alexandria, LA, has seen student discipline decline in her 27 years in the classroom.

"Discipline has definitely become more of an issue," she said. "I've seen the changes broken families have brought. More students are home alone. There is a lack of respect for adults."

Vallier summarizes the feeling of some Rapides teachers: Discipline in the classroom is important, but parental involvement is the bigger issue.

In a poll of Louisiana public schoolteachers, "discipline" was listed as the main issue facing them as classroom teachers, with 31.1 percent citing it.

Second on the list, at 10.9 percent, was parental involvement, parental cooperation and family life.

Local teachers note the two are linked together because some of the students causing discipline problems are children of apathetic parents.

Melissa Goodner, an English teacher at Alexandria Senior High, said a teacher with good classroom skills normally will have few discipline problems.

But when a good teacher must handle troublemakers, Goodner said, the student's home life is all too often a factor.

She said too many parents don't teach students to respect education.

Goodner said parents need to realize that students with jobs or those heavily involved in extracurricular activities may not be focusing enough on the education aspect of school.

"Some of them (children) aren't taught to take school as seriously as they should," Goodner said.

In efforts to involve parents more, teachers say they send reports and notes home, post Web sites, give out their home phone numbers and hold open houses.

ASH English teacher Katie Jackson said only eight parents showed up recently for an open house she held for parents of 90 students.

Much of the Rapides school district's recent disciplinary restructuring has focused on more parental involvement in schools.

Instead of sending students to the Rapides Motivational Center for short-term suspensions, students are sent home.

When that decision was made in August, Superintendent Patsy Jenkins said parents may take more interest in discipline matters if they have to take off work.

Also, Saturday detention programs are placing responsibility on parents, on their weekend off from work, to make sure their kids are at school early in the morning.

Effective discipline is also dependent on support from school administration, Goodner said.

ASH has recently given teachers more responsibility over discipline. Teachers may now assign detention or take other measures instead of sending violators straight to the principal.

ASH Principal Joe Moreau said this empowerment is partly why ASH discipline problems have been cut in half over the past three years.

Vallier said the Montessori strategies she began this year that teach respect and courtesy have almost completely alleviated discipline problems at Rosenthal.

Rosenthal Principal Karla Tollett said discipline problems have declined in her school since modular buildings provided more classroom space.

"Things used to be so crowded, and the children would bother each other," she said. "Having more space certainly makes a difference."

Local teacher group A+PEL considered discipline such an important topic that it asked all Rapides School Board candidates to address the issue at a forum leading up to the Oct. 5 elections.

Many candidates cited the need to return authority to teachers and get parents more involved in education.

Support was also shown for guidance counselors and Saturday detention programs.

Rosenthal teacher Charman Mitchell said that although discipline is not a problem in her classroom, a teacher has little hope of success without a strong discipline structure.

"If a teacher cannot discipline the classroom effectively, productive learning just doesn't take place," Mitchell said.

Emily Peters: 487-6372

[Theodore R.]

School disciplinary problems have been discussed for years, and the problems seem to grow worse with each passing year. Much of the problem stems on the lack of authority given to teachers by school administrators.

[RolandBurnam]

well lack of discipline in the past was chewing gum in class, now it is assaulting a student or teacher or bringing a gun to school.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Hey, when both parents work just to make ends meet, it's kind of tough to make parent-teacher conferences. Now I sympathize with the teachers about the apathy some parents have, but teachers too often don't sympathize with parents who are desperately struggling to make ends meet. BTW, that is still no excuse for lousy student behavior.

[Kenton]

This is LA we're talking about? Simple... employ Robo-Cop and Judge Dredd as hall monitors...

[FITZ]

I think they shouldn't try so hard to keep trouble makers in schools. Apparently there is a need for millions of unskilled workers like farm laborers, we shouldn't force education on those who don't want it. In the schools here the drop out rate gets quite high in middle schools and things actually improve after they leave.

[SouthernFreebird]

I guess you could say I've become an apathetic parent....I've been bothered with stupid dicipline crap. My child got in trouble for killing a bee.??????

.....While being bullied by a much larger boy who called him a faggot, my son fought back with words of his own when he'd had enough of the brat bullying him.... he didn't get physical just gave what he got and got suspended. When I discussed this other boys part of starting the whole thing, the teacher made excuses that this boy had 'problems' and somehow that justified my son getting into trouble for defending himself.

I've been called because my son drew pics of a gun on paper along with other doodles like aliens and things that interest boys.Stupid stuff, I've lost respect for the schools ability to discern real problems.
My son has lost respect for the schools judgement.

Our Schools have this inclusive thing where behavior kids are in the classrooms with normal kids, they get special attention and they get away with behavior that is unacceptable in the rest of the kids, what kind of message is that? Get these kids out of the regular classrooms and schools. Call me when there is a real problem.