Reply to Started working at an elementary school last week. Shocked and sad. AMA

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Are there any statistics on how often this is happening in schools? [/b]Like is it once per week, or twice per day in every grade? My daughter is in 5th and I never hear anything like this happening. We're in a mid-size, high-SES/UPC public school. FCPS.[/quote]

I'm a teacher and would love to know this. We are able to submit discipline referrals via our online system but we can't see what happens after that. Administrators do not like to have a high number of referrals so we're actively discouraged from submitting anything unless it's really serious. There's a lot of shaming at some schools and[b] teachers are made to feel inadequate if they continuously refer students, even if it is egregious behavior. I suspect parents would be livid if they realized how often it's happening though.[/quote][/b]

ES teacher here and I avoid involving administrators for the reasons you mention.[/quote]

I would encourage teachers to endure the shaming and make the referrals you need.  We need an adequate picture to make and advocate for better policy.  I would also push back on admin who try to shame, repeating, "I'm ensuring a safe environment for my students." I know this is hard, but principals are doing this because they get negatively evaluated by having too many 'on the book' referrals too (and maybe they don't want to deal with the hassle--they are overburdened and stressed too).  Gatehouse just responds to the data given that it's a large school system.  If the data isn't showing a big issue, they can't allocate the budget to handle the issue.  Teachers are in a position of power due to teacher shortages right now, use that power to support your own and your students' well-being.  It's also not harming the kid who gets the referral in ES--this is how they get access to better supports.  Decide among your teacher colleagues on what constitutes a serious issue and encourage each other to support by making referrals for the same.  Teachers have more collective power on this than they realize.[/quote]

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