Anonymous wrote:
"I taught for 8 years at a middle school with students who wore uniforms. On the surface students being suspended for not wearing a uniform sounds outrageous. However, I can tell you first hand there is more to it than just not having a uniform. First, many of these schools are magnet schools in which a parent applied to get their child in knowing it is a uniform school. The student and parent sign a contract agreeing to the uniform policy. When students do not have a shirt or pants, had an accident and so on uniforms were given to them through the school donation centers. These suspensions, at least the ones I witnessed were all students who repeatedly and defiantly choose not to follow the rules repeatedly. We had students wear red belts to show their gang affiliation and create gang groups in schools. Many of the students who were warned several time about their persistent defiance regarding uniforms, after phone calls homes, restorative conversations and other interventions were finally suspended. I guarantee if you look at the WHOLE situation for these children you will see the WHOLE picture because you decide to judge. I welcome you to come into a school and see the lack of authority teachers and administrators actually do have and then see with your own eyes the result of how our students are running wild in these buildings, fighting, not completing work, assaulting teachers, running out of the classrooms because there is NO let me repeat NO accountability for students. But please continue to make judgement based on surface information"
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4 comments:
The lack of uniforms is the obvious and cant be blamed on teacher. Every other form of rule breaking is blatant, such as fighting, or subtle such as back talk. But those things are always blamed on the teacher. The reason people find suspensions for lack of uniform as silly is because kids arent suspended for throwing a desk or a fight- we talk and the student gets returned to the classroom. The goal is every kid in the classroom-- no matter what.Sometimes they get In=school, but that can leave a very disruptive emotionally disturbed student with a classroom assistant. Everyone has to pick their battles, and to most people on the outside, the "wildness" of halls and classrooms is way more important than what they are wearing.
When students added gang colors like red belts were you able to get them to remove them?
Do any of the schools where uniforms are required have any kind of swap program? I can't believe I typed that right after Questioners post about gang colors.
The schools have extra clothing for students, donated and purchased by the school
The questions asked are the REASONS these students continue to fail and why our teachers are getting assaulted and quitting:
Yes we provided a written agreement for parents and students to sign stating they agree to the policy.
We have extra clothing for emergencies paid for by the school budget
We do remind students of the policy nicely when they fail to follow it
We do call home after 2 or more violations and patiently listen as a parent calls us names and tells us we are bothering them
We do politely ask a student to remove gang colors only for them to say "fuck You"
We DO NOT write a referral 80% of the time because we know we are wasting our time and we have so little time to do our jobs. Plus our referrals are tracked by the principal and if you have too many you appear to be an ineffective teacher.
We choose our battles everyday and when a student is finally suspended for not wearing their uniform I can promise you it is because EVERYTHING was done to give that student an opportunity to not have to be accountable for their disregard of the school rule.
At some point if we do not hold students accountable our system will continue to fail. We continue to look for solutions where everyone else is accountable or in charge of 'fixing' the problem instead of TEACHING a child to follow a rule or to be accountable for their actions.
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