On Monday, Tucson Unified School District Governing Board member Mark Stegeman issued a constituent letter, in which he questioned whether the current administration and Board could make the changes necessary to bring order back to the classroom. Much of the letter focuses on the deteriorating situation at Secrist Middle School, but Stegeman also addresses the mistreatment of teachers by the District.
Stegeman wrote, “I think that TUSD’s current board, and many of its administrators, are neither philosophically nor temperamentally capable of addressing TUSD’s school climate problems. In this area, perhaps more than in other, they “do not get it.” No one condones students’ bad behavior, but they do not realize how their policies and practices encourage and perpetuate such behavior.”
In his letter, Stegeman says that he receives “a steady stream of complaints about discipline problems.” He offered one example, which he described as a “typical complaint”:
“My grandson… 1st grade has had a problem being BULLIED for an entire year. Last year he was bullied by other children and again this year the same problem happens almost daily…. was punched in the eye again today, he had to go to the nurse and the last time he was punched in the stomach, mouth (I saw blood) and eye. I have absolutely had it with these kids at this school and the way things are SWEPT under the rug… We are now considering suing the School district and the parents of these boys too.”
Stegeman writes that he did not know whether the complaint was accurate or an exaggeration, but “there are so many similar complaints, some from persons I already know, that they cannot all be wrong.”
“I was startled to read a TUSD administrator suggest that part of the problem at Secrist was removing students from classrooms too frequently rather than too rarely: “He indicated that ‘A large number of students were routinely sent to the office for low level offenses that should have been handled in class,’” said Stegeman referring to an article in the Arizona Daily Star. “That interpretation is completely detached from the reality that the students at the Secrist meeting were describing.”
“Students get it,” wrote Stegeman. “Students (of all ethnicities) understand that students need boundaries, consequences, and high expectations. They are astonished when the adults running the school system do not understand that. They are astonished that adults allow a few students to ruin education for the rest.”
Stegeman also shared a letter from Secrist students that was originally reported by popular Tucson radio show host James T. Harris. In that letter, (view here) students cry out for order in the classroom. They read the letter at a recent meeting at Secrist. It reads in part:
“Teachers spend much of their class redirecting and are not spending enough time preparing the kids for there (sic) future. There is a lack of discipline at Secrist; as students we don’t understand why lunch detention or after school detention is given. Kids do not respect the teachers, and they think they can get away with it because they push the boundaries as far as they can. The amount of disrespect is unimaginable we are honored to have many teachers still here. There are a lot of disrespectful words being said to teachers, staff and in the hallways. Us 8th graders feel that we are not going to be prepared for high school at the end of the year. We don’t have enough time to learn everything we need to by the end of the year with all of the disruptions going on.”
Stegeman’s letter continues in part:
Therefore, while not every school in TUSD has a climate problem, I am convinced that the district as a whole has a serious problem. Striking the right balance between the interests of perpetrators and victims is always a challenge, but the current balance tilts too far away from the interests of victims, who include not only the direct targets of aggressive behavior but every student and teacher who suffers from a chaotic educational environment.
I am also convinced that this is the biggest single reason that TUSD loses students. TUSD operates in a competitive market, and too many of its schools are not providing the safe and productive educational environment that the customers want. If the district insists on giving academic theories about discipline (which are often based on weak empirical research) a higher priority than the needs of the families who consume its services, then they will get disgusted and leave. Trying to force families to endure lax disciplinary policies is self-defeating, because TUSD loses all control of the educational process when they flee to other schools that provide what they believe is a healthier school climate.
“Restorative” disciplinary models have had some successes, and Central is proud of the decline in reported incidents at some schools, but it fails to recognize the gaps in disciplinary reports. It is an open secret that disciplinary incidents (including gun incidents) are under-reported at some schools, because there is so much to lose by reporting everything. Secrist proves the point. According to the Star article, it attracted an investigation partly because it self-reported so many disciplinary problems. The removal of its leadership, whether or not justified, provides an unintended lesson to every other principal.
When I have discussed the problem of under-reporting with staff, the disconnected response has been simply to refer to the reported data.
2) The current board cannot solve the problem.
I think that TUSD’s current board, and many of its administrators, are neither philosophically nor temperamentally capable of addressing TUSD’s school climate problems. In this area, perhaps more than in other, they “do not get it.” No one condones students’ bad behavior, but they do not realize how their policies and practices encourage and perpetuate such behavior.
Teachers and students and parents all know that Central is detached from reality on this issue, but unfortunately I see no signs of reattachment. When the board discusses discipline, the focus is consistently on moving further and further away from disciplinary consequences and instead providing more and more support and intervention for the bullies who make everyone elses’ lives miserable. The board sees this as severing the “school-to-prison pipeline” (an admirable goal), not realizing that they are instead filling the pipeline out of TUSD and into neighboring districts and charter schools.