Yesterday, a group of 374 DISD middle school students came for a field trip. Within moments of exiting the bus, a 14 year old 6th grader did something so bad that a police officer had to come and escort the student off the park premises until his parents could be located and come to pick him up. He wasn’t allowed to enter any of the institutions on campus or have any contact with his classmates or teachers.
The incident occurred in the two minutes it took the students to get off the bus and walk to the museum’s front door. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Of course, since the student never actually made it into the museum, my involvement in the situation was extremely limited. I’m not even 100% sure I know what actually did (or did not) happen. Although, I heard several accounts from teachers about the event in question, so I have a pretty good idea of what transpired (think: weapons and/or drugs).
To make matters worse, the coordinating teacher had a near nervous breakdown immediately following the incident. Luckily, the other kids were in a performance by this point, and weren’t exposed to the hysterics taking place just outside the auditorium. On the verge of tears, the teacher told me that she, “Just can’t do this anymore.” Apparently, she’s been teaching for the district for years now, but no longer thinks she is making a difference in the lives of the students. According to her, a lot of the kids at her school already have substantial juvenile records. Some of the girls have had reputations since elementary school. Drugs, alcohol and gang violence are everywhere. She’s tried and tried again and again to get through to some of her most at-risk students (including the one who was being escorted around by a cop just outside the building), only to watch them arrested and convicted of a major crime before their 18th birthday and enter the Texas Penitentiary System.
Talk about depressing.
Of course, not all the students at her school are considered to be at-risk. In fact, some of the best elementary schools in DISD feed into this particular middle school, along with some of the most troubled. So the students are – literately – all over the place. Some function way above grade level while others are barely literate. It is an interesting mix. And I cannot imagine being responsible for teaching a group of students that represent both ends of the educational spectrum like that. What a daunting (not to mention near-impossible) task!
According to the teacher, she had excluded around seventy students from the field trip for failing grades, disciplinary issues or overall behavioral problems. However, 24 hours before the field trip was scheduled to take place, the principle announced that the teacher could not exclude students based on things like failing grades or behavioral misconduct. As a result, students (like the one who was being escorted around by the cop outside) were allowed to come along at the last minute. And what happened?...A major incident took place just outside the museum within moments of the bus arriving that morning.
It just isn’t fair to anyone involved. Not the teachers who have to deal with situations like these. Not the kids who have to witness their classmate being forcibly removed from the group by a police officer. Not even to the student who got in trouble and had to be separated. His past behavior strongly suggested that he lacked the skills and maturity to go on the field trip in the first place. I can appreciate the principal’s belief that no one should be excluded, but putting a kid into a situation like that is almost setting him up to fail. Plus, you have to have some system in place where kids learn that there are consequences for their actions. If you misbehave, if you get suspended from school, if you fail a class – all these things effect whether or not you will be able to go on the end of the year field trip (not to mention advance to the next grade). Saying you are going to enforce consequences and then not following through is teaching the wrong lesson and not benefiting anyone in the long run.
Sorry to go on and on. I was just deeply troubled by what I saw yesterday. I know these problems exist everywhere in schools across the country, but it is still hard to digest when confronted with situations like this head on. After all, they are just kids. Only in the sixth grade – most not even old enough to be considered “official teenagers”. And yet, here they are dealing with issues with no easy solution. No quick fix. Plus, this particular middle school happens to be the one in my neighborhood. It is a mere two blocks from my house. I pass these kids on my way to work everyday. If I had kids, this is the school they would attend.
It really makes you stop and think.
2 comments:
The blame for this rest squarely on the shoulders of the parents. Parents don't care anymore and you can tell the good students from the bad by parent involvement. Ask my wife. At the ripe old age of 5, you can tell the good parents from the bad by watching their kids.
The other thing is that DISD needs to be split up into multiple districts DISD West, East, North, South, etc., until the districts are more manageable. It's out of control.
Third DISD needs to implement male and female schools.
I can see why people lack faith in public education. I really can. Being married to a GREAT educator and watching lousy co-workers come and go, man it's awful, but it's still a good system if monitored closely.
~Jef
After an incident involving students throwing a dead rat at each other at Fair Park my 2nd year of teaching at Dallas ISD, I swore I'd never take another large group on a field trip. You are really set up for failure when a principal does not maintian discipline standards like that.
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