Disruptive group of students: what to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The people who minimize these behaviors as normal are probably the same people who minimize rising crime rates as simply being part of urban living. Neither are normal, nor should they be tolerated.

I don't minimize crime, but it's important to contextualize it accurately in history. The current crime rate started slightly rising in 2015-16, then again slightly in 2019, rose most dramatically during the pandemic in 2020 and has continued to rise since on a much slower scale, now plateauing between 2022-23. But when we pan out, we see that even after these rises, we're currently at a rate that is the same as 2001, which in turn represents a decline from what it was in the 1990s (which were a decline from the 1980s). So even with the dramatic rise in crime in 2020 that has persisted, we're still at a lower crime rate than any time between 1990-1996, which was in turn lower than the peak crime rate in 1980. We got used to historically low crime rates 2002-2014 and should investigate what policies and practices were in place during that time period that lessened crime.

Nope. DC is at 1999 homicide rates and trending worse. You are minimizing.

These are national statistics.

[Anonymous]

Well, why not try restorative justice here?

Problem solved!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is in the 5th grade, and there’s a group of four students that are extremely disruptive. Loud screaming and yelling, rolling in the floor etc. and it is a daily occurrence (if not every class).

Example, kid sits next to my child, then starts screaming random stuff, although not directly at my child. Then the other kids pick it up and start screaming as well. The troublemakers have a history of misbehaviors but is was manageable and took off this year. Teachers really can’t hold their class and so far from the beginning of the year two teachers left because they couldn’t handle it.

I sent an email expressing my concern to the home classroom teacher only, especially because my child is telling me they hate going to school, they don’t learn anything there etc.

I’m not sure there will be much done and I want to escalate by lodging in a formal complaint of harassment. Although there isn’t a one on one interaction, I believe that one group of students is harassing another group of students in the class. Maybe not typical, but I still believe this is harassment and that my child is being victimized. One of the disrupters has a history of harassment from a year ago, when he mimicked a sex act with my child’s hat, and I followed a complaint with the school about it. He got some restorative justice talk to, and it didn’t repeat since.

I am genuinely concerned and want to take some action to remedy the situation. Am I judging the situation correctly and any advice on how to proceed?

Has anyone sat down and just asked the students themselves to please just settle down?

I mean, honestly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is in the 5th grade, and there’s a group of four students that are extremely disruptive. Loud screaming and yelling, rolling in the floor etc. and it is a daily occurrence (if not every class).

Example, kid sits next to my child, then starts screaming random stuff, although not directly at my child. Then the other kids pick it up and start screaming as well. The troublemakers have a history of misbehaviors but is was manageable and took off this year. Teachers really can’t hold their class and so far from the beginning of the year two teachers left because they couldn’t handle it.

I sent an email expressing my concern to the home classroom teacher only, especially because my child is telling me they hate going to school, they don’t learn anything there etc.

I’m not sure there will be much done and I want to escalate by lodging in a formal complaint of harassment. Although there isn’t a one on one interaction, I believe that one group of students is harassing another group of students in the class. Maybe not typical, but I still believe this is harassment and that my child is being victimized. One of the disrupters has a history of harassment from a year ago, when he mimicked a sex act with my child’s hat, and I followed a complaint with the school about it. He got some restorative justice talk to, and it didn’t repeat since.

I am genuinely concerned and want to take some action to remedy the situation. Am I judging the situation correctly and any advice on how to proceed?

Has anyone sat down and just asked the students themselves to please just settle down?

I mean, honestly!

lol, you think that hasn't been done dozens of times??? what planet do you live on? Or is this just sarcasm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is in the 5th grade, and there’s a group of four students that are extremely disruptive. Loud screaming and yelling, rolling in the floor etc. and it is a daily occurrence (if not every class).

Example, kid sits next to my child, then starts screaming random stuff, although not directly at my child. Then the other kids pick it up and start screaming as well. The troublemakers have a history of misbehaviors but is was manageable and took off this year. Teachers really can’t hold their class and so far from the beginning of the year two teachers left because they couldn’t handle it.

I sent an email expressing my concern to the home classroom teacher only, especially because my child is telling me they hate going to school, they don’t learn anything there etc.

I’m not sure there will be much done and I want to escalate by lodging in a formal complaint of harassment. Although there isn’t a one on one interaction, I believe that one group of students is harassing another group of students in the class. Maybe not typical, but I still believe this is harassment and that my child is being victimized. One of the disrupters has a history of harassment from a year ago, when he mimicked a sex act with my child’s hat, and I followed a complaint with the school about it. He got some restorative justice talk to, and it didn’t repeat since.

I am genuinely concerned and want to take some action to remedy the situation. Am I judging the situation correctly and any advice on how to proceed?

Has anyone sat down and just asked the students themselves to please just settle down?

I mean, honestly!

lol, you think that hasn't been done dozens of times??? what planet do you live on? Or is this just sarcasm.

Well, ok.

But maybe what is needed here is a more collaborative approach. Why not gather the entire cohort of children and explain the issue such that they realize they are jeopardizing their own educational opportunities. Make each child a stakeholder in the process and give them responsibility for the outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is in the 5th grade, and there’s a group of four students that are extremely disruptive. Loud screaming and yelling, rolling in the floor etc. and it is a daily occurrence (if not every class).

Example, kid sits next to my child, then starts screaming random stuff, although not directly at my child. Then the other kids pick it up and start screaming as well. The troublemakers have a history of misbehaviors but is was manageable and took off this year. Teachers really can’t hold their class and so far from the beginning of the year two teachers left because they couldn’t handle it.

I sent an email expressing my concern to the home classroom teacher only, especially because my child is telling me they hate going to school, they don’t learn anything there etc.

I’m not sure there will be much done and I want to escalate by lodging in a formal complaint of harassment. Although there isn’t a one on one interaction, I believe that one group of students is harassing another group of students in the class. Maybe not typical, but I still believe this is harassment and that my child is being victimized. One of the disrupters has a history of harassment from a year ago, when he mimicked a sex act with my child’s hat, and I followed a complaint with the school about it. He got some restorative justice talk to, and it didn’t repeat since.

I am genuinely concerned and want to take some action to remedy the situation. Am I judging the situation correctly and any advice on how to proceed?

Has anyone sat down and just asked the students themselves to please just settle down?

I mean, honestly!

lol, you think that hasn't been done dozens of times??? what planet do you live on? Or is this just sarcasm.

Well, ok.

But maybe what is needed here is a more collaborative approach. Why not gather the entire cohort of children and explain the issue such that they realize they are jeopardizing their own educational opportunities. Make each child a stakeholder in the process and give them responsibility for the outcome.

Nearly every elementary classroom does things like this--they come up with classroom rules together, they revisit classroom rules together. They discuss appropriate consequences and responsibilities. I think it's great and it often works, but I can't imagine that hasn't been tried in this situation--that's like classroom management 101. The issue is that there are a group of kids who have decided they don't care and they're on to the fact that the teacher doesn't have a lot of power to do much about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The people who minimize these behaviors as normal are probably the same people who minimize rising crime rates as simply being part of urban living. Neither are normal, nor should they be tolerated.

I don't minimize crime, but it's important to contextualize it accurately in history. The current crime rate started slightly rising in 2015-16, then again slightly in 2019, rose most dramatically during the pandemic in 2020 and has continued to rise since on a much slower scale, now plateauing between 2022-23. But when we pan out, we see that even after these rises, we're currently at a rate that is the same as 2001, which in turn represents a decline from what it was in the 1990s (which were a decline from the 1980s). So even with the dramatic rise in crime in 2020 that has persisted, we're still at a lower crime rate than any time between 1990-1996, which was in turn lower than the peak crime rate in 1980. We got used to historically low crime rates 2002-2014 and should investigate what policies and practices were in place during that time period that lessened crime.

Nope. DC is at 1999 homicide rates and trending worse. You are minimizing.

There was something like 500 homocides per year when the citiy's population was 500k back then. Didn't realize it had gotten that bad again?

[Anonymous]

Make admin do their jobs and quit blaming new teachers. Cuz guess what. We will leave the profession and say fudge it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any way you can swing private school or even private online school for a year? I'm a teacher and can tell you there's probably no way the school will get this under control if two teachers in the grade level have already left. That means the remaining teachers are doing extra work and most likely burning out fast.

This is not typical public school behavior. Schools would immediately have them removed from the class. They could get in school suspension, doing their work on their own.

Sadly, no. It would have happened in our childhoods, but not anymore. Parents scream “OMG SPECIAL NEEEEEEDS” every time their kid is disruptive, threaten to sue and public schools fold like cheap card tables.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) You sound really tightly wound and so does your child. Take a deep breath. It's your anxiety and controlling nature talking. Unless your child has an LD or other kinds of special needs that would make them react abnormally to this situation they will be fine. 2) The teacher needs help. This is either because she's inexperienced or because the school is not helping her when she needs help. This is not on the students so stop fixating on them.

What the hell is this garbage response? OP does not sound "tightly wound".

It’s DCUM so there’s always some loony feeling slighted, maybe she has a kid with issues or she was that kid in the class and raw memories are rushing back. There’s also the fringe crowd that opposes any disciplinary action because it’s not equitable, so everything goes. But yeah, it’s quite crazy to blame the parent and the child for being “tightly wound”. Unreal!

Oh, assuredly. She’ll come back and deny it, or huff WHO SAYS I’M A SHE?!?!? because it’s a conveniently anonymous message board, but the parents defending this and trying and failing to blame OP and her kid are 100% the parents of disruptive kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) You sound really tightly wound and so does your child. Take a deep breath. It's your anxiety and controlling nature talking. Unless your child has an LD or other kinds of special needs that would make them react abnormally to this situation they will be fine. 2) The teacher needs help. This is either because she's inexperienced or because the school is not helping her when she needs help. This is not on the students so stop fixating on them.

What the hell is this garbage response? OP does not sound "tightly wound".

Calm down OP. You sound hysterical.

I’m so embarrassed for you. Truly.

Not OP. Feel free to ask Jeff — or, you know, get a life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s NOT normal.

It is these days. There are no real consequences for this type of behavior anymore.

My kids are in public ES--they haven't experienced anything like this. I volunteer and I don't see it either.

+1
Because OP is exaggerating and hysterical and making things up.

Hi, parent of disruptive kid!

[Anonymous]

We are moving our kids to private. I realize it won’t eliminate all problems and there may be different problems, but a private school can expel kids for repeated bad behavior or for using drugs in school. Our public school doesn’t really do enough and that is why some people say these behaviors are normal now.

[Anonymous]

Designated classes of children now have rights and needs that trump the rights and needs of the non-designated (ie, “normal” kids).

So if your child’s class has a critical mass of the “designated” don’t expect much. Your child has no rights that the school (or their designated peers) are bound to respect. Remember, normal kids have essentially no needs at all —- the only needs that matter are “special” ones.

And don’t you dare complain, lest you be labeled insensitive or privileged. Just vote with your feet and walk if you can afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Designated classes of children now have rights and needs that trump the rights and needs of the non-designated (ie, “normal” kids).

So if your child’s class has a critical mass of the “designated” don’t expect much. Your child has no rights that the school (or their designated peers) are bound to respect. Remember, normal kids have essentially no needs at all —- the only needs that matter are “special” ones.

And don’t you dare complain, lest you be labeled insensitive or privileged. Just vote with your feet and walk if you can afford it.

This is because most progressives are critical theorists. They uplift "the most marginalized" at the expense of everyone else. This is why they support males in girls' bathrooms and on their sports teams and teaching CRT.