Waycation

Way.ca.tion: A rest for the mind; an unconventional method of escaping the moment and returning refreshed and better than before.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Court For Student Misbehavior? Crazy!!!

I read this article this morning about the "criminalization of student behavior". This basically translate to adolescents being sent through the court system for inappropriate behavior in school. Granted, adolescents are really acting out in ways that we have never seen before however letting the courts deal with school issues is not the answer.

In many states, including Texas, schools are increasingly sending misbehaving students to court instead of the principal’s office.

Critics call this practice “the criminalization of student discipline.”

According to a recent story in the Washington Post about Texas schools,”Six in 10 students were suspended or expelled at least once from seventh grade on. After their first suspension, they were nearly three times more likely to be involved in the juvenile justice system the next year, compared with students with no such disciplinary referrals.”

Anger management instituted in the school system is a better and more current process of discipline and learning than the antiquated use of suspension and expulsion. For me suspensions are a few days out of school to hang out and play video games and the thought of sending an adolescent to court should be reserved for extreme behaviors.

I have been monitoring the school systems that use anger management. I am currently writing a post for the third time about the California School district that successfully instituted anger management district wide. Over the past few years anger management has shown to be an enormous success. As a matter of fact in the first year of instituting the process the program proved to be an immediate success. To me that says the district matched the need with an ideal solution.

There may be some cases that warrant court intervention however there needs to be effective school alternatives instituted. Right now there is suspension on one end and court which I believe in many cases is too extreme and probably in the long run detrimental. Somewhere between these two options of discipline I believe is a more effective and appropriate solution with a greater long term yield for positive adolescent growth. Sending adolescents to court for school offenses may just possibly be breeding a new type of young adult that just might be a hybrid we will eventually regret. School districts need to seriously look into providing anger management in the school system. Those schools that have instituted anger management are experiencing very positive results.

If you or someone you know needs anger management please call: Yacine Bell, director of the Anger Management Institute, LLC, 510.393.0250

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