Board Policy JICDA-R Level I

In his book Why Meadow Died, Andrew Pollack explained the policies of the Broward County (Fla.) School District that contributed to the school shooting in Parkland on February 14, 2018. In its decision to slow down the "school-to-prison pipeline", administrators down-graded violations and dealt with them administratively, rather than asking the Broward County Sheriff's Department to deal with them. Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (and other schools in that district) were able to rack up disciplinary actions that should have been dealt with more firmly, but instead they ended up with a "pass".

If they didn't get too many disciplinary punishments, they stayed in school. At the end of the school year, the slate was wiped clean and the count started all over at the beginning of the next year.

Students looked like they had clean records. Result? Seventeen died; seventeen were injured.

Now take a hard look at Board Policy JICDA-R. Go the the District's website; click on EXPLORE; click on School Board; then on BOARD POLICIES; then on the left side click on J-STUDENTS; then on JICDA Code of Conduct. JICDA-R is just under that.

Read carefully the list of offenses and the required or recommended dispositions. Offenses can even include conduct off school grounds. Did you know that?

There are three levels of offenses:

1. Level I - Behavioral Misconduct
2. Level II - Disruptive Conduct
3. Level III - Criminal Conduct

This blogpost deals with Level I. Consider the responsibility that falls on the "staff member" who observes, or is notified of, a Level I infraction. The staff member (ex., teacher) is expected to "handle" it.

The teacher is not only expected to teach; the teacher becomes the disciplinarian.

Let's say s/he is trying to deal with a student who has lied, cheated, used abusive language toward another student, etc. The teacher is expected to maintain a record of the misconduct and the action taken. The Policy does not call for "counting" the number of offenses. A student could violate one today, another tomorrow, another next week, etc.

How does a teacher deal with the student who is a constant problem?

The Policy does not require the teacher to report or submit a record to anyone. So the misconduct does not follow a student from grade to grade.

Next up? Level II - Disruptive Conduct