Terry Bibo’s article in the Journal Star today is one of the most disturbing things I’ve read about District 150 (and that’s saying something). The gist of the article is that a Peoria family who had been sending their kids to Peoria Christian School decided to give District 150 a chance. So they put their kids in Glen Oak school, only to have them be bullied and discriminated against because they were white. The daughter even got threatened by a group of three girls in a restroom once. The last straw for this family was when a fourth-grader (one of the three girls in the previous restroom incident), armed with a box cutter, threatened to kill their daughter.
What’s most troubling to me is the school’s response. Bibo talked to Associate Superintendent Cindy Fischer about this situation and was told:
. . . the district has policies that were followed in each of these instances. Every one was addressed, in large part through a nationally-recognized program that teaches and reinforces appropriate behavior. District-wide, 150 has four committees exploring various aspects of discipline problems. And for this family, offering [to let their kids attend] Kingman [Primary School] is a respectable option: It is late in the year, so the district is reluctant to make any transfers. But Kingman has fewer discipline problems and several openings. Hines Primary School . . . has none.
“It certainly is our regret that we were not able to bring satisfaction to this parent,” Fischer says. “As consumers, when we’re not satisfied with one product, we go to another. I think that is what this parent has done.”
Is it just me, or does that response leave something to be desired? First of all, if the district followed all its policies and the level of hostility toward this girl escalated as a result, isn’t that an indication that the district’s policies don’t work?
And what about those policies? They’re part of a “nationally-recognized program that teaches and reinforces appropriate behavior.” Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for the principal or administrator to punish the student’s inappropriate behavior? Are we to believe that this girl didn’t know that threatening another student with a weapon was inappropriate? If that’s true, then this girl has bigger problems than a lack of positive reinforcement. She really should be in another school that specializes in problem children.
Which brings up another point. Why is it that the well-behaved students were asked to leave Glen Oak and go to Kingman? Doesn’t that reinforce the behavior of those kids doing the threatening? I mean, they wanted those white kids out of their school, and now they are. I guess they won, huh? Why aren’t the delinquent students being removed from the school (sent to remedial school, suspended, or expelled)? Are we to believe they aren’t threatening other kids — that this is an isolated incident?
They have “four committees exploring various aspects of discipline problems,” which gives me mixed feelings. In one sense, it shows that they’re acknowledging the problem and trying to do something about it. But on the other hand, is effective school discipline really such a conundrum that it takes a cadre of administrators to figure it out?
I seem to remember the kids in my grade school being reasonably well disciplined. Of course part of that discipline was getting punished for wrong behavior, up to and including corporate corporal punishment. We were so unlightened back then, weren’t we? Unenlightened, but well-behaved.
One last thing this episode points out (as if we didn’t know): District 150’s problem is not aging schools. People aren’t avoiding the district because the buildings are not energy-efficient. They’re worried about safety, discipline, and education. This is where the district needs to be spending its time and resources.
Hmm
I think the family needs to apologize for the fact they are white. We all know it’s their fault. The simple fact that they attend the school is evidence of this.
As for the school policy and offering to transfer them, well again see it’s the white family that needs to accpet a change. Dist 150 has a problem, it’s not something they want to admit, but the majority school population in some areas is racist, and in turn is starting to attack the minority class. This is a trend starting to show up here, that has long been in play in the bigger inner city schools. D 150 should have removed the students that attacked this family’s child, maybe even placing charges on the parents.
What happened was a Hate Crime. Too bad the PC police are running D 150, and PJ Star…
I think that you meant “corporal” punishment. “Corporate” punishment happens years later.
Doh! I didn’t proofread that very well, did I? Thanks.
D150 doesn’t want any discipline problems, so they decided they don’t have any. “Everything was done according to the book” There is no problem. No one in administration has the guts to stand up and say “Enough of this nonsense, we’re not going to put up with it.”
SO, more and more of the parents who care, be they black, white, hispanic, whatever, send their kids to other schools. Meanwhile, they can rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, and scream for more money for the boilers, but everybody knows where the ship is headed.
This does seem to be a racist issue; but I have had children come to my home and xxx beat me up today as this child had a mark on them. Did you start it…NO…what happened to both of you. We both got suspended for two days. One for starting the fight, the other for defending themselves. Both black. No racism here unless it’s just against each other. But something is wrong with this picture. Why do both get the same punishment?
District 150 needs to thtow all their books away, bring in some of Peoria’s best social agencies, evalaute each child, test each child, (what grade level they actually belong in; not pass them on to get rid of them) start all over…”no child left behind” huh????? Well, they are. Can’t read or do math in HS. That Ol’ School isn’t causing the problem, whose doing the teaching and how.?????? One afternoon I went to a school to visit; went to the room that had the children that had gotten into trouble through-out the day. The Assistant Principal had absolutely no control over them. They were yelling over him and not doing anything that they were told. When I saw a young man that comes to my home, am friends with, he’s a very good boy but apparantly did something wrong; I had a stack of papers in my hand. I walked over to him and gently swatted the papers over his head and asked him what he was doing in here? For the next ten minutes while I was there, that was the quietest room in the school, I believe. Probably what I did was wrong but he got control of the room for a little bit. Most of these kids come to our home after school. We have no problems with them. They know this is our home and they respect it as such. Their shoes come off at the door; they are respectful and quiet. They ask for trash bags to help clean up the block, their street.
The picture is not right here either; why do they not respect the teacher, yet we have their respect?????
They do not respect the teacher because respect is not taught at home. The reason they respect your (Egiver) home is because you probably enforce the “rules of the house.” My wife teaches high school students and I know second hand that if an administration does not enforce it’s discipline then it falls on the back of the teacher. Students nowadays are smart, street smart that is, and savvy. They know that they can raise hell in the classroom and the teacher can do nothing. Not even grab them “forcefully” to escort them out of the room. It is so messed up. Why can we not spank anymore?
I remember some punk assed kid in 7th grade developed a serious attitude problem. It had been building for weeks. The kid was perenial problem. Our math teacher was big man, ex marine. One day the kid pushed him too far and he hauled that kid right out. That kid was fighting back too. The rest of us watched in awe. Later that week the kid was acting up in English class (female teacher). A quick call over the intercom and Mr. Math was down there hauling his ass out again. He was soon kicked out of school.
I recall another time our male social sciences teacher snapped on someone. The poor kid wasn’t a regular troublemaker (class brain rather) but he said something smartass. Sitting there stunned he was a bit slow to head his but down to the office. Mr Social Science expedited his journey.
Those two male teachers made a HUGE difference in the discipline of the school. No one bitched about what they did (that I know of). It was technically not allowed to lay hands on a student then too. They did it anyways because it was the right thing to do.
No female teacher could have gotten away with that.
I understand the school district is probably concerned about lawsuits when it comes to spanking. But there are plenty of other punishments. For small infractions, writing sentences was a deterrent for me. I remember having to write 1,000 times, “I will not flush paper towels down the toilet and cause it to overflow.”
But when it comes to brandishing a box cutter, obviously more drastic steps need to be taken than “teaching and reinforcing appropriate behavior.” This kid is way past that. Why wasn’t she turned over to the police? Is this not a weapons violation? “Research has shown that use of weapons other than guns, particularly at an early age, is a strong risk factor for involvement with guns (Arria, Wood, and Anthony, 1995),” according to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Doesn’t this warrant stronger reaction than just asking the threatened girl to go somewhere else? This is so outrageous, I can’t believe this is allowed to happen in our schools.