The Failure of Public School Discipline Policies

As a former public school teacher, who, for the last six years of his 30 year career teaching middle-school Science, I experienced first hand the frustration of having any and all control taken away from my classroom when it came to disruptive student behavior.

All we were allowed to do was send them to the office for being dealt with by the Vice Principle most of the time. Because the trend of removing any form of corporal punishment was stripped from the discipline policies of public schools starting around the time I entered to profession in the late '70s, the behavior noticeably worsened over the years.

What was the new policy? It started out with detention; students sitting in a designated room at the end of the school day for a specific period of time. I, on occasion, was the teacher serving duty in such rooms, as much of the staff were required to do. In essence, this was merely a delay in being able, for those incorrigible students who most likely never had a father figure in their upbringing, to hang out with their friends after school.

Many of them were repeat offenders. Over time this policy was dropped because it failed to reduce the frequency and quantity of disruptions by those students who, because they were smart enough to understand there really were no consequences to the actions, knew they were in control and that misbehavior was not actually a threat to them. If they ever were suspended, or expelled, they considered it a release from the place where they were basically a prisoner from being able to spend time being productive; dealing drugs with their friends, extorting someone for money, stealing cars, etc.

Now, details are coming out about the Parkland, FL high school student who was one of these types; orphaned, fostered into another home, tossed around by the school district and his behavior record disguised to "hopefully" rehabilitate him with "restorative justice" policies rather than some tough love he needed along with the kind of counseling services he obviously needed. Then too, he may, at that point, have been beyond help. But, it ended in the loss of 17 innocent lives - three being staff members of the school - and the students and media go after the tool he used to commit the atrocity. 

Yea, that'll solve the problem of these type students amidst our youth. His defense lawyer says he's a broken human being... Nooooooo, ya think? Here we go with the bleeding liberal heart angle that created the problem in the first place.