Re: 128 students suspended at Ind. school

Banty wrote:

2. Insisting on ignorance of the policy (from a teacher??!?)

I used to be a teacher (for a short time anyway - it wasn't for me).
But this is not nearly so wierd as you make it out to be. Schools are
not always the paragons of commication that a) you assume them to be
and b) they *should* be. I worked at a school part-time, and didn't
get certain policies communicated to me on a regular basis. Dress
codes sometimes get changed in the middle of the year, so what is in
the handbook might be outdated. I suspect schools are probably a
little better now, with the advent of email - just set up a teachers
mailing list or whatever, and voila' everyone gets an email of the
changes. But when I was teaching, it was before widespread use of email
in highschools. But, I suspect that even today, communication still
isn't what it should be. When you have a big institution with LOTS of
people, LOTS of processes - well, things get missed.

3. All the talk about how it is 'humiliating'.

Well, we don't know how the principal handled it. Maybe he did
humiliate her. We cannot say. Schools and teachers, unfortunately
*do* humiliate students on occasion. I had it happen to me as a
student, and I saw it happen when I was a teacher. Someone suggested
(I *think*) that the reprimanded students be required to wear black
pants and white shirts for the rest of the day, and unlike the others
here, I *do* think that would be humiliating. It's the equivalent of
wearing a dunce cap, or wearing a scarlet A (so to speak). It's
drawing attention to the fact that the student was reprimanded.
Besides, wearing someone else's clothes is creepy. When I was a kid
the school nurse kept a limited supply of clothes for emergencies - it
was clean and everything - but when a kid spilled on themselves, and
they had to wear those outfits (everyone recognized them) they got made
fun of.

4. Instantly falling over with praise as a parent for the one person who
validated her ("Lyn") ...

Yes, that was a bit wierd.

...equals Momma dressing daughter in denim skirt and tank top and daughter
coming home crying and Momma coming here looking for support!

One thing that's important to remember, is that Nimue *did* make some
points that are fair and reasonable. Not all of what s/he said was
worthless, and we should take the logical stuff and ditch the rest.

For instance:

1. Certain aspects of dress codes aren't alway reasonable, nor are they
always fairly and consistently enforced.
2. Staff members at schools should follow - at minimum (!) - the same
dress codes as the students.
3. Teachers and Principals should strive not humiliate students and
should strive to be as fair and reasonable as possible.
4. Schools should keep kids in class as much as possible - that
punishing a student by keeping them out of class is counter productive
to learning.

Now, I'm not sure I agree with Nimue about where the line is drawn for
#4 - what she/he considers "possible" is likely different in my book.
I suspect that I am somewhere between most administrations and Nimue in
that.

Cathy Weeks

.

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