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Treatment of School Bus Monitor by Middle School Students is a Disturbing Example of What Happens When School Discipline Breaks Down

June 21, 2012 by

A viral ten minute video from New York is helping Americans understand just how terribly some students can treat school staff.  Students from Athena Middle School were caught on camera saying truly horrible things to 68 year-old Karen Huff Klein who is a school bus monitor who has served her school district for 20 years.  The students used vulgar language, called her fat and made fun of her because one of her children had committed suicide.  One student made a reference to what would happen if he cut her with a knife.

In a live interview on Fox News this morning, Ms. Klein learned that a blogger has raised more than $120,000 from donors trying to raise enough money so she can retire or take a nice vacation.  Ms. Klein stated that she has received countless e-mails from people all over the world expressing shock at the actions of the students and support for her.  She said that she has been touched by the number of students who have e-mailed her from other regions.  She also stated that none of the parents of the students involved has apologized for the actions of their children thus far.

Though I am generally slow to form a final opinion from any video segment because video clips do not always present a complete picture, the insults by the students in this instance are truly horrible and painful to listen to.  I hope more people will begin to understand why it can be so difficult to attract and retain quality school employees such as school bus drivers and monitors when discipline approaches of schools are ineffective.  

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Documenting School Safety Efforts can be Critical

June 20, 2012 by

While reviewing depositions for  a school safety lawsuit today, I was reminded of just how important it is not only to properly document school safety and security incidents, but the measures that are in place to try to prevent, respond and recover from school crisis events. 

Coming from what is primarily a law enforcement background, documentation seems like such a basic part of work.  However, to people who have not had occasion to deal regularly with court processes often do not realize how important documentation can be when it comes to life-safety issues such as school safety training, issuing school crisis plan components to employees and other important aspects of school safety and security.

Forensic case evaluation typically involves the careful review of thousands of pages of a case file.  Attorneys, jurors, judges and expert witnesses are often forced to rely on a wide variety of documents to help them make determinations of facts and probabilities in a particular case.  Whether the court process involves a juvenile court petition, a criminal proceeding, or litigation against school officials; the quality, accuracy and depth of documentation can be extremely important. 

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North Carolina “Strip Search” Case Demonstrates the Need to Train School Officials on Search and Seizure

June 19, 2012 by

The mother of a third-grade student in Clinton, North Carolina who was reportedly asked by a school administrator to disrobe except for his T-shirt and boxer shorts is alleging that the school should not have “strip-searched” her son.  According to media accounts, assistant principal Teresa Holmes asked student Justin Cox who is ten years old to partially disrobe in a search for a missing $20 bill.  After the search, the money was found under a lunch room table.

Sampson County Schools Spokeswoman Susan Warren Said that the mother, Clarinda Cox should have been informed of the search but defended the actions of the administrator stating that she was within her legal right to conduct the search.

However, if the reports in the media are correct, it is likely that the search would be found unconstitutional if challenged.  Courts in the United States have been reluctant to support strip searches of students in contrast to other types of student searches which typically only require only reasonable suspicion.  Though this search reportedly did not involve a “strip search” to the point of nudity, the fact that the administrator was only looking for missing money would likely pose problems for the district in court.  Courts have typically required that school officials meet a much higher standard of probably cause for these types of searches and are more likely to support them if the search is conducted for a firearm, knife or illicit drugs rather than for missing property. 

I served as an expert witness consultant on a federal law suit involving a female police officer who asked a student to pull her bra forward under her clothing during routine entry point weapons screening.  Though described as a “strip search” by plaintiff’s counsel, this search did not involve the removal of any clothing and was conducted at an alternative school for older students who were high-risk for violence and substance abuse.  In the end, this case was settled though the search likely might have been supported by the courts because the searches were conducted each day to keep weapons out of the school.

Civil actions against school officials who make individual students or groups of students partially disrobe while looking for missing money have often been lost or settled by school officials.  We recommend that all school employees receive training on school search and seizure and that clear policies be developed for searches on campus.   

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Media Coverage Relating to Allegations of Serious School Employee Conduct are Sometimes Incomplete Due to Limitations on how School Officials can Respond

June 18, 2012 by

We regularly see media accounts regarding allegations of inappropriate conduct by school employees ranging from over-reaction to student disciplinary situations to serious physical assaults on students by school employees.

Having been directly involved with many investigations relating to misconduct by school employees, experience has shown that as with other fields such as law enforcement, there are people in the field who will do some very inappropriate and even criminal things and there are many false or exaggerated allegations.  We also see this in our expert witness work.  I have had cases where school officials have done things that were very poorly and students have died.  I have also seen instances where allegations of terrible acts of misconduct turned out to be without basis in fact once the forensic evaluation had been conducted. 

Allegations reported in the media today regarding school employees who reportedly made a child strip naked and take a shower in front of them are a case in point.  It is not possible to determine from the media accounts if these allegations have merit or not.  The attorney representing the child alleges that the staff members not only made the child strip naked but that they verbally abused and ridiculed the child for being “smelly”.  School officials have declined to comment on the case most likely on the advice of legal counsel.  As with other types of organizations that are often advised by attorneys to decline comment, this puts school officials at a disadvantage while also making it harder for the public to accurately determine if anything was or was not done wrong.

We recommend that people be slow to pass judgement on these cases as with criminal cases.  Many of us were sure that Richard Jewell had placed the explosive device in Centennial Park during the Atlanta Olympic Games only to learn that he was not only innocent, but that he was the hero who saved many lives that day by his alertness.  This and  many other cases indicate that it is prudent to remember that not everyone who is accused of wrongful actions is guilty. Our legal system affords ample opportunity for people to address allegations of a serious nature.  While it is far from perfect, it is among the best legal systems in the history of the world and we should generally give it a chance to work before we pass final judgement on others without all the facts before us.

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Schools Lose Increasing Number of African-American Students to Home-schooling, Safety and School Discipline Often Cited as Reasons for Parental Choice

June 17, 2012 by

African-American students now comprise the fastest-growing segment of home-school attendees.  There are now approximately 220,000 African-American students out of the more than 2 million students who were home-schooled last year according to the National Home Education Research Institute. 

In an interview with Fox News, George Noblit, who serves an education sociologist at U.N.C, Chapel Hill, indicated that many African-American parents have opted for home-schooling to protect their children from drugs and bullying in addition to a perception that they would receive a better education suited to the needs of their children

With the overall per capita rate of home-schooling nearly doubling in the United States from 1999 to 2007, this aspect of why some parents choose this approach to educate their children bears careful consideration by educators.  Keeping in mind this data does not reflect situations where students drop out of school or change from one school to another, school discipline, safety, security, climate and culture are core competency issues for educators. 

 

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Is this really ADA Accessible?

June 16, 2012 by

How easily could a person in a wheelchair enter this restroom?

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