ARCHIVED ARTICLES
Week of July 23, 2010
Who is Verbon Muhammad?, Monroe Free Press
A new school board member in Monroe, LA is using the old “more discipline” strategy to exert his dominance.
School’s In, TriValley Central
An Arizona school district has updated its bullying school policies to include suspension for cyber-bullying, even though such actions usually occur outside of school.
Sharp emphasizes discipline, unity
A Monroe City, LA school board candidate is emphasizing improved discipline, but seeks to decrease class sizes and divide classrooms by gender to improve discipline, rather than increasing punishment for students.
A Promising First Summer at Knoxville’s Freedom School, Metro Pulse
A Tennessee school’s new reading intensive curriculum is focused around breaking the “cradle-to-prison” pipeline.
AAESA appoints Cain as Outlook Academy liason, Allegan News Online
The head of a strict discipline charter in Michigan has resigned, and the article, perversely, credits his strict discipline policies with lowering the number of dropouts.
Hundreds rally, bogus charges against black student accused of stealing chicken nuggets dropped, Fight Back!
A Wisconsin student was arrested for allegedly stealing a school cafeteria chicken nugget. The charges have been dropped.
Employment training programs discussed, Columbia Basin Herald
Washington state is pushing employment training to address the state’s high dropout problem, particularly among students of color. Dropouts are less likely to become employed and far more likely to end up in prison.
Opinions/Editorials
Conservative self-deception on school re-segregation, Richmond County Daily Journal
School board members in Wake County, NC are pushing for re-segregating schools as a potential solution to the achievement gap between White students and students of color.
Week of July 16, 2010
Kanawha BOE Tables New Discipline Policy, WCHS Radio 58
A West Virginia school board has decided to lower the length of suspensions in order to “keep at risk students in the classroom as much as possible.”
Hawkinsville HS Focuses Grant Funds on Improving Discipline, Behavior, 13WMAZ.com
A school in Georgia is using grant money to try to address discipline issues by creating a more positive school environment and engaging youth
Student activists, allies headed to DC July 19, Philadelphia Public School Notebook
Youth United for Change has posted a guest blog on the Philly schools site “The Notebook” in advance of next week’s trip to Washington D.C. to push legislators and administrators for an end to the school to prison pipeline. The day of action, set for July 19, 2010 is being organized by the Alliance for Educational Justice and will involve hundreds of youth from all over the country.
Six-Year-Old Student Handcuffed: Parents File Suit Against New Orleans School, care2.com
In Louisiana, a six-year old student was handcuffed and shackled at his school after getting into a dispute with a classmate over a chair. Apparently, this kind of brutal, prison-like, and humiliating discipline is normal at the school as part of its discipline code. The boy and his family are suing the school. This kind of shocking story needs more attention – it is time to stop treating six-year olds like criminals.
NYC DOE Tightens Sexting, Cyberbullying Rules, School Library Journal
New York City is still moving ahead with their plan to suspend youth for 90 days for either sexting or “cyberbullying.”
Discipline Data: Suspensions at Charter Schools & Traditional Public Schools, Curious 2
An excellent post from New York City where a blogger has broken down some of the publicly available school discipline data to show that charter schools suspend roughly the same proportion of students as non-charter public schools.
Opinions/Editorials
Fixing public education? Start with discipline, The Dayton Beach News Journal
Another misguided editorial from someone who thinks public education has deteriorated because schools coddle students too much.
DISD investigative unit’s “typical investigations” are downright scary, Dallas ISD Blog
An investigation into the Dallas’ school district reveals multiple students received corporal punishment, against school board policies.
Nashville Schools See Racial Disparities In Suspensions, NPR
NPR’s Tell Me More has an important segment on racial disparities in school discipline. The segment focuses on Nashville, TN, but the panelists (including Pedro Noguera and a local school principal) emphasize that the problem is national. Importantly, all of the panelists acknowledge that a large part of the problem is that teachers don’t react to White youth and youth of color in the same way. This kind of discussion is important – we need more of this to help the nation understand what we are dealing with.
Glad to read that the Memphis school board rejects attempt to revive corporal punishment, Get Schooled
Memphis has decided not to revive corporal punishment.
Editorial: Juvenile justice reform finding increased traction in salvaging troubled youth, Shreveport Times
An article on improvements in juvenile justice services in Louisiana.
Week of July 9, 2010
Schoolkids’ suspensions through the roof: Experts say 40% rise is ‘major crisis’ in discipline, Daily News
An important article from the Daily News in New York City highlighting the increase in suspensions in the city since 2006. The article presents the classic tension between school officials insisting that they are keeping youth safe and the advocates and youth who point out how destructive the punitive culture is.
Life after high school: Boot camp at Cook County Jail, Catalyst Chicago
A sad story from Catalyst Chicago mapping the trajectory of a student from the end of high school to (just one year later) the prison yard. The article uses the student’s story as an illustration of the School to Prison Pipeline.
28K Students Got Corporal Punishment, Georgia Public Broadcasting
Georgia reports that 28,000 students were corporally punished last year.
Michael Bullard ‘From Trenches,’ Seeks More Discipline in Classrooms, The Ledger
Polk County, FL school board candidate runs on a platform of disciplining more students, including corporal punishment.
Fountain Hills mulls discipline policy extending leniency to athletes, azcentral.com
An Arizona high school decides to punish student athletes less harshly if they admit to wrongdoing before being caught and/or agree to intervention.
Paddling a thing of the past?, Athens Banner-Herald
Reporting from Athens, GA on the proposed bill to ban corporal punishment.
Georgia still won’t spare the rod, The Augusta Chronicle
Article about Georgia’s reluctance to give up corporal punishment.
City schools getting safer as major crimes fall 7% and violent crimes drop by 6%, Daily News
This is a companion to the Daily News’ report on increasing suspensions in New York City – the city is touting the decline in youth violence and increased spending on security. In particular, the city is proud to have hired more school safety agents (739 since 2004). The paper quotes Donna Leiberman of the NYCLU making the important argument that the security spending is going up while instructional staff are being cut – all while suspensions rise.
Ohio black students discipline at high rates, Cincinnati.com
More coverage of CDF’s Ohio Kids Count report showing continued stark racial disparities in school discipline.
Schools find discipline of cyber bullies hard to impose, Sheer Press News
An article that examines the growing issue of whether schools should discipline students for conduct outside of school, especially cyber bulling.
Opinions/Editorials
School Suspensions Up, Parents Angry, Gothamist
Gothamist also has the story – with the additional spin that parents are angry.
Week of July 2, 2010
Argue Minor Discipline Not Right Fit for School Agents, The Chief
An article from New York highlighting the NYCLU’s campaign to get police in NYC schools to stop arresting students for minor infractions.
Graduation Is the Goal, Staying Alive the Prize, The New York Times.
An interesting article on the violence facing youth in Chicago schools and the steps that the city is trying to take to make them safer.
Racial punishment?, The Columbus Dispatch
CDF-Ohio has released an important new report highlighting the continued racial disparities in school discipline across the state of Ohio. The report highlighted the Akron and Toledo areas as amongst the most unequal. The report recommends that Ohio take steps to stop disciplining so many students.
No Paddling Push, KLTV 7 News
Article from a local ABC news affiliate in Texas about the federal bill that would ban corporal punishment.
Philadelphia youth groups come together for 2nd nonviolent flash mob, Philadelphia Public School Notebook
Another cool action from Philadelphia, where youth gathered in a “non-violent flash mob” both to stand up for peace in the city and to highlight their ongoing campaign against injustice and criminalization in schools.
Online Bullies Pull Schools Into the Fray, The New York Times
A New York Times article about the issue of whether schools should punish students for conduct outside of school, including cyberbullying and sexting.
Students face closure of alternative schools because of L.A. County budget cuts, Los Angeles Times
Alternative Schools (often for youth who have been kicked out of mainstream school) in Los Angeles are on the chopping block.
Studies Illuminate Self-Defeating Behavior By Students, Education Week
This article presents some interesting research on students’ “self-defeating” behaviors.
School-eye views of the city’s new draft discipline standards, GothamSchools
This is a good report on the positives and negatives in New York City’s revised discipline code. On the one hand, the city is expanding positive behavior supports. On the other, it had done nothing to cut back on the over-policing and over-criminalization of youth that happens across the city.
Parent appeals to school board over son’s suspension for ‘fight,’ The Times Daily
An example of an overly harsh punishment for a “fight” from Tennessee.
Opinions/Editorials
An Arcane, Destructive – and Still Legal – Practice, The Huffington Post
The ACLU’s Deborah Vagins has written a column on the Huffington Post in support of the recently introduced bill to ban corporal punishment in schools.
County can take the lead in ensuring juvenile justice, The Times Leader
A column from Pennsylvania urging Luzerne County (the home of the cash for kids scandal) to become a leader on juvenile justice issues.
Bill to end school corporal punishment, Arkansas Times
Op-ed from Arkansas about the recently introduced bill to ban corporal punishment.
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