Exporting a bad idea

Even the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, Wallace Jefferson, thinks issuing Class C citations to students for "disrupting class" is a bad idea.

According to this article from the Guardian, Judge Jefferson thinks introducing children to the criminal (in)justice system is helping drive them to jail. Even the US Attorney General, Eric Holder, thinks it's a bad idea.

It appears that the British government is looking to take cues from the Lone Star State in dealing with juveniles. Crispin Blunt, the UK's justice minister, toured juvenile courts and detention centers in Texas this fall on a fact-finding mission.

Emulating the way in which Texas handles its school disciplinary issues will only succeed in introducing more young people to the criminal (in)justice system. The most common citation issued to students in Texas is "disrupting class." Can you imagine a more nebulous term? What constitutes a disruption serious enough to warrant charging a student with a criminal offense?

Do we really need to make kids miss class to attend court because they spoke out of turn? Because they made an inappropriate joke? Because they insulted another student? Because they took too long coming back from a potty break?

And what are the leaders of the Texas State Teachers Association took no position on the issue when the legislature last debated it. The head of the union said that most of his members are in favor of issuing criminal citations to students.

And what message is that sending? The job of our schools is to educate our youth, not to socialize them in the workings of the criminal (in)justice system. Those who support the current law, and those who take no position, are doing our children a grave injustice.

Instead of looking for excuses to enter people into the criminal (in)justice system, we should be looking for ways to keep them out.

Creative thinking in public education?

Possession means actual care, custody, control of management. 

-- Texas Controlled Substances Act Sec. 481.002(38)

Possession is different than use. Possession is different that "under the influence."

To possess an item is to exert some degree of control over a tangible object. The tangible object, such as a controlled substance, is necessary to prove possession. After all, you can't have control over something that no longer exists.

For instance, one may be in possession of marijuana at the time he is smoking it. But, as he smokes the marijuana, the drug breaks down in various components and metabolites in his body. At the same time, the marijuana itself is destroyed by fire. After smoking marijuana one may be "under the influence" of it. One may even be intoxicated by smoking the marijuana, though that would be difficult to prove without a test showing the concentration of the metabolites in the body and expert medical testimony regarding the effects of marijuana in the concentration found in the body.

The State of Texas defines marijuana (please, someone, explain to our legislators that no one else spells marijuana with an h) as "the plant Cannibis sativa L., whether growing or not, the seeds of that plant, and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture or preparation of that plant or its seeds."

Nowhere in the definition of the hippy lettuce does the state allege that the metabolites left in the body after ingesting marijuana is marijuana.

Texas defines controlled substance is "a substance, including a drug, an adulterant and a dilutant listed in [the Controlled Substance Act]."

Once a person absorbs a controlled substance, Xanax, for instance, that substance is broken down by the body into various metabolites - a term not used in the definition of controlled substance. One can be intoxicated if he ingests a controlled substance (or marijuana) and loses the normal use of his mental or physical faculties as a result. However, one is not in possession of the controlled substance once it has been ingested - because the controlled substance itself no longer exists.

In fact, you can make the argument that once someone is "under the influence" of a drug, that the drug is in control of the person and not the other way around. How else could one be "under the influence?"

But try explaining that simple concept to a school administrator who declares that being under the influence of a drug on a school campus is the same thing as possessing the drug on a school campus. I recently had a school administrator tell me, with a straight face, that, per district policy, that if a student is under the influence of Xanax, for instance, that student is considered to be in possession of the drug; and, since possession of Xanax is a state jail felony, that the student under the influence of Xanax is subject to expulsion because their conduct amounted to a felony.

Huh?

I have yet to find a statute in the Texas Penal Code or in the Health and Safety Code that makes it a felony to be under the influence of Xanax (unless, of course, the person was driving a vehicle with a child or was in an accident that resulted in serious bodily injury or death to another person).

Just something to think about.

More than half of Texas students suspended or expelled

The results of a longitudinal study that followed one million Texas seventh-graders for six years reveals that 60% of those students were suspended or expelled at least once before finishing high school.

That is an astounding number - and an indictment of disciplinary policy in Texas schools.The purpose of public education is to ensure that every child in Texas receives a quality education through high school. Policies that result in more than half of our children being suspended or expelled and policies that introduce children to the criminal (in)justice system for misconduct at school are antithetical to the mission of our schools.

Mike Thompson of the Council of State Governments Justice Center said that this is a continuation of a 20-year trend that has seen suspension and expulsion rates double across the country. I guess it's a lot easier to educate the children who behave and leave everyone else to fend for themselves. But kids who drop out, are expelled or who fail to graduate for some other reason are more likely to find themselves caught up in the criminal (in)justice system as adults.

There are already too many folks under the thumb of the government. We don't need more.

Thompson said that's the problem: Expulsion and suspension policies focus too much on punishment, and not enough on addressing the misbehavior and having students learn from their mistakes. 

"We think the findings in this report should prompt policymakers in Texas and everywhere else to ask this question: Is our state school discipline system getting the desired results?" Thompson said.

According to the study, almost one-in-six children were punished eleven times or more. Of those, about half ended up in juvenile justice centers or alternative schools for 73 days or more. Those are the kids who tend to repeat grades or drop out of school without graduating.

The study also revealed that 70% of black girls were either suspended or expelled compared to 37% of white girls for the same or similar offenses. That's hardly a coincidence. Disciplinary decisions tend to be made solely by a teacher or administrator - hence there are no checks-and-balances to ensure that all students are treated equally.

The report also looked at the fascination that Texas schools have with issuing Class C citations for behavior that a generation ago would have been handled in class or within the school. Talking back to the teacher or disrupting class make it harder for teachers to do their jobs -- but charging a kid with a criminal offense and requiring them to miss school to appear in court with their parents is not the way to resolve it. We should be looking at ways to reduce the number of people introduced to the criminal (in)justice system, not the other way around.

State Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston) voiced his concern to the Houston Chronicle about schools farming out disciplinary problems to the courts:

Whitmire complained of "large inner-city school districts creating a large bureaucracy to deal with oftentimes just dumb teenage behavior that can be corrected short of making it a crime." 

Whitmire said the report confirms his concern over the continual growth in criminalizing classroom behavior. 

"We all want safe schools, an orderly environment and for teachers to be left alone," said Whitmire, the senior member of the Texas Senate. "The nonsense begins with overusing the issuance of Class C misdemeanor tickets and the tremendous growth of school district police departments."

Schools should be places of learning. Schools should be a refuge from the harsh realities of life. They shouldn't serve as a way station to the criminal (in)justice system.

See also:

"Majority of Texas middle and high school students suspended or expelled," Grits for Breakfast (July 19, 2011)
"Breaking Schools' Rules: A statewide study of how school discipline relates to students' success and juvenile justice involvement," The Council of State Governments

Texas looks to cut teacher pay

"Those damn teachers. They're the ones causing all our problems here in the Lone Star State. They just make too much money. We've got to do something to keep them from bleeding us dry."

Maybe that's not exactly what came out of the mouth of State Rep. Rob Eissler (R-The Woodlands) but it's probably pretty close to what he was thinking. Mr. Eissler is celebrating the passage of a proposal by the Texas House of Representatives that will allow school districts to cut teacher pay.

I would say it's quite ironic given that Mr. Eissler spent 18 years as a trustee of the Conroe Independent School District before pimping himself out running for the state legislature; but on his campaign website, Mr. Eissler wanted everyone to know that he was a fiscal conservative who was out to "reform" education.

He and the rest of the Republican cabal running the State Capitol have decided that it is more important not to raise taxes and not to touch the state's "rainy day fund" than it is to pay teachers for the thankless work they do on a daily basis.

I understand the pressure to balance the state's budget in a time when revenues are falling, but providing an education for our children is an investment in Texas' future and no one seems to have given much thought to the number of experienced teachers who have finally had enough of the abuse, scorn and low pay and have left the profession. Sure, the budget might be balanced today - but what happens ten years down the road? What happens when our youth aren't prepared for college or for the workplace after graduating from high school?

Or do Mr. Eissler and his colleagues even care? Are they willing to trade our future for votes in the next election - or is their goal the destruction of public education in Texas?

Making learning fun

Yesterday I found myself taking my oldest to a birthday party for one of her classmates. I know, I know, a birthday party for a seven year-old - how exciting. How on earth did you get stuck with that gig.

Not yesterday. It was a mad scientist party and the guest attraction was Jon Bartell of Science Quest in Houston. Through some really crazy experiments and a host of critters, Mr. Bartell showed a roomful of kids just how much fun science can be. From cannons made with breath freshener to crushing cans to sending the kids up and back on a hovercraft, Mr. Bartell made science come alive for both the kids and the parents.

We have dumbed down and taken the fun out of so much at school -- all in the name of getting kids ready for standardized tests. What ever happened to teaching children to think and make their own discoveries? What ever happened to hands-on experiments? What ever happened to having kids who wanted to be at school?

Thank you, Mr. Bartell, for reminding us that learning can be fun.

Refilling the ranks?

A couple of weeks ago I got to enjoy one of the perks of this job. I serve as counsel for a local teacher's organization - I represent members in termination hearings and in any criminal matters related to their employment.

Every spring the organization holds its annual banquet in which scholarships are awarded to members and their kids and retirees are honored. In a typical year there might be five or six teachers retiring after 20 years or so in the profession. It's a loss to the schools but there are plenty of teachers in the pipeline.

This year was different. With the budgets of every school district being pared with a butcher's knife as the result of budget cuts at the state level, districts are offering lucrative severance packages to teachers with enough years in service. This year there were about 35 members retiring from the profession in this organization alone. Most of the retirees had well over 20 years of experience.

More than 700 years of teaching experience is walking out the door at one time. And that's only one teacher organization in one city. According to the organization's president, people coming into the teaching profession are staying in five years or less on average. As time goes on there will be less institutional memory.

What does that mean to the future of education in this city? In this state? What will happen to our schools when the majority of teachers are only "passing through?"

Attracting people to the profession and keeping them in is going to take a large investment. The failure to make that investment will cost us much more over the long run.

Reading, writing and citing

Add Texas State Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston) to the growing chorus of voices calling for school districts to stop issuing Class C misdemeanor citations to students for disrupting class and truancy.

According to Sen. Whitmire's op/ed in Friday morning's Houston Chronicle:

Despite evidence that Class C misdemeanor ticketing does little to change student behavior, the practice is widespread in our public schools. According to a recent report released by the public interest law center Texas Appleseed, more than 275,000 non-traffic tickets are issued annually to juveniles in Texas - many for low-level misbehavior commonly ticketed at school. 

Appleseed's research shows that minority and special education students, who are at greatest risk for school dropout, are being ticketed at higher rates for low-level, non-violent offenses. 

In a recent legislative address, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson made an important point: 

"More than 80 percent of adult prison inmates are school dropouts. Charging kids with criminal offenses for low-level behavioral issues exacerbates the problem." This is a warning worth heeding.

The problem is out of control in the Houston area. According to Sen. Whitmire, over a five-year period, Dallas ISD issued citations to 1,200 students while during the 2008-2009 school year alone, Houston ISD issued over 5,700 citations.

There is absolutely no need to drag young children into the criminal (in)justice center. If we stay on this path we are only socializing our children that their place is in the courtroom. It's time that school districts take back responsibility for disciplinary matters in schools. Schools should look at their behavior modification techniques and fine tune or change them if necessary. School district police should be trained to de-escalate situations instead of pulling out the ticket book. School districts should look to youth courts allowing peer-based solutions to behavioral problems.

Back to the schoolhouse

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Texas Appleseed report on school districts farming out their disciplinary problems to the criminal (in)justice system. It seems as if at least one state legislator, Armando Walle (D-Houston) paid attention to the report.

According to the Texas Tribune, Rep. Walle has introduced three bills regarding the ticketing of school children. One would allow students to pay their fines through community service or tutoring. The others would require school districts to keep data on the citations issued to students and would require school districts to offer specialized training for officers.

While these bills may be a first step in the right direction - they fall far short of fixing the problem.

If we are going to allow our schools to place juveniles in the criminal (in)justice system for misbehavior on campus, it should only happen for specific offenses such as fighting and possessing weapons or drugs.Disrupting class is much too vague a concept for a student to face criminal charges. Disrupting class is something that should be handled on campus through a suspension or detention program.

Fighting, on the other hand, is an actual criminal offense; as are possessing weapons or drugs.

Rep. Walle's proposals also fail to address the burden placed on parents when a school issues a citation to their child. A parent is required to accompany the child to court (while school is in session). Should the child be required to perform community service, the parents will be required to drive the child there and back again. If a fine is levied, guess who will be opening up the checkbook?

What happens if both parents work? What if one parent stays at home with younger children or older parents? The parent didn't do anything - yet the parent is being punished.

It is time we stop the outsourcing of discipline by schools. It's time school districts disclose to parents the consequences of ticketing students for disciplinary problems. It's time we stop looking for excuses to force people into the criminal (in)justice system.