I frequently visit Jim Peacock’s edu-blog Zero Intelligence, where he focuses an alert eye on the follies of schools’ disciplinary policies (the site is named after Zero Tolerance discipline).
Kudos to Jim for having the courage to create a site with such a tightly-knit topic of discussion… and to enjoy such success with it!
Here, Mr. Peacock exposes an especially ridiculous incident:
Katherine Cairns, an art teacher at Vero Beach High School in the School District of Indian River County, had an encounter with a willful student. The girl screamed at her when Cairns was trying to restore order in the bathroom and Cairns slapped the girl in the face. Schools Superintendent Tom Maher recommended a ten day unpaid suspension for striking a student. The School Board voted 3-2 to ignore the recommendation. Why?
Board member Kathryn Wilson said she was concerned about the students in Cairns’ class not being able to get work done because of the suspension. She said she wanted to see Cairns back in the classroom.
Cairns shouldn’t be punished because her absence harms the students? So a person is not responsible for their actions if punishing the person affects others. Interesting concept.
The illogical hypocrisy in today’s public schools astounds me – while probably to a lesser extent than it astounds most people: I live through it five days a week!
Shameless Plug Alert: Andrew blogs regularly for his site, Verité.
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