Guest columnist
Don't blame the schools for enforcing boundaries

By Matt Rosenberg
Special to The Times

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Actions have consequences, and education comes first. Those are the missing points in most of the stories about the current discipline controversy involving the Kent School District. As of late last week, the Seattle NAACP had filed legal claims of almost $50 million against the district on behalf of 15 students, charging use of excessive force.

At issue are instances where students were handcuffed, subdued with police-style holds, or allegedly roughed up by district security officers. The district says some of the incidents arose when students were "apparently or actually intent on aggressively continuing a fight after being confronted or separated by school staff." According to the district, some of the other cases occurred when students told to obey rules responded with "assaultive, aggressive or violent behavior," or heavily abusive language.

Carl Mack, local president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told me if students really pose a danger to themselves or others, there should be no objection to force or restraint being used. But he believes none of the cases meets the district's criteria; that security was "overzealous and out of control;" and that black students are viewed with "a master's mindset, a white superiority mindset." He added the NAACP reviewed 25 cases, before proceeding with the 15.

In accusing the district last week of "institutional racism," the NAACP has jumped the gun. The burden of proof is on the accuser, and, for what it's worth, the district says it will not be settling any of these cases before trial. Because of the Seattle area's overheated racial politics, accusations of bias are too often played as fact.

Some context is required. The district confirms that its security officers have had to use force or restraint as many as 50 times this school year. That number is dwarfed by total disciplinary actions. In each of the last three school years, there have been about 4,000 sanctions against Kent students, ranging from in-school detention to expulsion.

As that last figure suggests, school administrators, teachers and security guards face real challenges, though not usually involving handcuffs or chokeholds. Kent Meridian High School Principal Dave Dorn says the district's boundaries are explicit, and consistently enforced: There will be a safe, orderly and productive atmosphere; no one can stop a student from learning; and no one can stop a teacher from teaching.

"When you go to restraint, it's always because there was a concern about the safety of the student, or others," says Dorn.

I would rather that school districts err on the side of toughness than laxity, with respect to violent and nonviolent discipline problems.

Last week, the nonpartisan, nonprofit policy-research organization Public Agenda issued a report titled, "Teaching Interrupted." It's based in part on interviews with a national random sample of 725 U.S. middle- and high-school teachers, and describes student discipline and behavior as "an old problem with real costs ... in terms of teacher morale, teacher attrition and student learning."

Here are a few key findings:

• More than three in four teachers say discipline problems significantly compromise their effectiveness. "Instruction becomes — I don't want to say the minimal piece — but often it does become that," noted one New Jersey teacher. Virtually the same percentage says misbehaving special-education students are often disciplined too lightly.

• Seven of 10 teachers agree a big problem is "the disrespect everywhere in our culture — students absorb it and bring it to school," according to the report. A pressing issue for teachers is parents' failure to teach their children discipline.

• While discipline problems skew worse in urban schools with higher concentrations of low-income students, highly educated and high-income parents can also do a lousy job in teaching their kids to respect authority. And they're often unwilling to accept any warnings from teachers or administrators.

• "The focus groups indicated that the politics of race can intrude in discipline decisions. One teacher — an African American — explained, 'Here in St. Louis (they) pull the race card very, very fast, instead of looking at the issue,' " the report said.

That our society now must take for granted the presence of armed police and security guards in public schools is hugely dismaying. We live in an age gone somewhat mad, and public schools reflect that.

Parents are responsible for teaching their children right from wrong, and to value learning. Unfortunately in his school, says Dorn, too many students are living on their own, or with relatives or friends. Factor in our pop culture's emphasis on attitude, status, commercialism and violence — and you've got trouble.

I wonder: Is it many of our American parents who should be facing trial, instead of our schools?

Matt Rosenberg is a Seattle writer and regular contributor to The Times' editorial pages. E-mail him at oudist@nwlink.com. His Web log is at www.rosenblog.com