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Tuesday, August 4, 2015

The district shrugs its shoulders at fighting and stealing.

Let me ask you a question. How many times could you steal or fight at your work before you got a real punishment. My bet is only once. They are both considered intermediate or class II offences in the draft of the code of conduct and if you are a student in Duval County public schools prepare to live it up!

2.16 (ZZZ) Stealing or Use of Counterfeit Bills – Any intentional unlawful taking and/or carrying away of property valued at less than $300 belonging to, or in the lawful possession or custody of another, including, but not limited to, money, credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, jewelry and personal items located in lockers, cars, book bags, clothing, or anywhere else on school property or the use of counterfeit money for procuring school items i.e., lunch, fundraisers, uniforms, etc. (Proof of purchase price required).

*2.16 (ZZZ) Stealing or Use of Counterfeit Bills (Group 2.15/2.16/2.17)  Restorative Practice1-3 Days ISSP   Restorative Practice  1-5 days ISSP  Restorative Practice  6-10 days ISSP  Restorative Practice  6-10 days ISSP

The fourth time caught, that's caught folks you are still getting ISSP.

2.10 (FIT) Initiating a Fight – When a student intentionally instigates or initiates a fight with another student.

2.10 (FIT) Initiating a Fight (Group 2.07/2.09/2.10/2.11/2.12)  3-5 days ISSP (1 day mandatory minimum)  And Restorative Practice  And Behavior Contract  And Parent Contact  And Loss of all extracurricular for ten days  6-10 days ISSP  Restorative Practice  SOS  And Loss of all extracurricular activities for 20 Days   10 Days OSS  Referral to Hearing Office

It might be an oversight but it doesn't say there is an out of school suspension for the second fight, Regardless it is not till the students fourth fight where they start to see anything approaching a real consequence.

From FCN, The proposal spells for example that three points will be assigned to fighting, with a second offense upgraded to four points. When a student reaches 12 points, they would be assigned to the Grand Park Educational Center.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/education/2015/08/03/code-of-student-conduct/31075163/

Interesting enough the punishment for filming a fight seem just as severe for those being in a fight.

2.13 (ZZZ) Use of a device to record a fight or School Board employee (Group 2.13/2.14)  Parent Conference  Behavior contract  Detention  Confiscation of device and return at end of day (returned to student)  1-5 days ISSP  Restorative Practice  6-10 days ISSP  Guidance referral  Confiscation of device and return at end of day (returned to student)  Restorative Practice  1-5 days ATOSS  Confiscation of device and return at end of day (returned to student)  Restorative Practice  6-10 days OSS  Confiscation of device and return at end of day (returned to student)  Referral to Hearing Office

Take a look for yourself here: Code of conduct draft

I asked a teacher that is really plugged in, Do you think they are trying to improve things or are they just rearranging deck chairs? And they replied, The super made it sound like he understood the need to deal swiftly with fighting and not wait for multiple occurrences. But this proposed CoC for the new year--he's blowing smoke again. Damned tired of it.

What do you think? Are we heading in the right direction or are you tired of it too.

More analysis to come.

3 comments:

  1. Phone rule last year was confiscation until the end of the day for the first 2 times, then parents had to pick it up. Now its held until end of PERIOD first 2 times, then until the end of the day thereafter. It sounds like parents never have to come and get it. So yes, it's been watered down again! My question is: does dean have to do all of the bullet points? Seems like everybody has a lot of work to do so that student goes unpunished.

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  2. Kids need structure with consequences. It never, and I mean never, works to have a classroom, let alone a school, without a set of real procedures and meaningful consequences. Students respect that, but people downtown seem to bend to the maybe 10-20 kids at every school who just don't want to follow the rules. It should not take 4 fights for referral to alternative school. Maybe a student gets involved in a fight once; stuff happens. Multiple fights, however, are not simply not okay. They create a disruption to literally every other student. Some of my best students last year couldn't focus because the culture of the school had so disintegrated. None of the adults that make the decisions would ever want another student to fight their kid 4 times before alternative school. People need to think of it that way. Would they want their phone or wallet stolen 4 times before a real consequence occurs? On top of that, the students that seem to fight the most are usually not involved in extracurricular activities, so that consequence is meaningless. How about the consequence of assigning a mentor from the school board instead of ISSP? How about the people downtown running all of the ISSP classes? These rules would change in a heartbeat.

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  3. There is no profit in curing a disease. Some of these students are animals and don't need to be in normal settings.

    ReplyDelete