by AFT President Sandra Feldman
September 1998

People who work
in the schools can't
shoulder the whole burden.

As school starts, many of us are haunted by images from recent news stories of children opening fire into schoolyards, but I wish every American would stop in to visit a local school and take a look around. They'd be reassured by the calm and orderliness in most hallways and classrooms. I'd guess that the main reaction from someone not used to schools would be, "How do they manage all those kids?"

Well, it isn't easy. And sometimes schools don't. So while the overwhelming majority of America's children attend safe, orderly schools, it's important to talk about the exceptions and to focus on a basic question: If, as every poll shows, parents and teachers all identify discipline and safety as top concerns, why isn't every school safe and orderly? After all, aren't these grownups in charge?

Not entirely. Schools are part of a community. And if a community isn't willing to take its responsibility for dangerous streets or for run-down and overcrowded school buildings, schools will suffer the consequences.

Zero Tolerance

We've enacted zero tolerance rules for deadly weapons. That's good; and it has helped. But what about zero tolerance for violence and drug dealing and other adult ills in and around the school community? Or zero tolerance for parents who fail to properly supervise their children or see to it that guns are properly stored?

People who work in the schools can't do it all. The first order of business for a neighborhood, or a society, that wants safe schools is to ask if adults are exercising their responsibility for their children--in the homes, and in the streets.

The second order of business is to realize that in schools where kids are crowded into facilities designed for half their number--in other words, in many urban schools--discipline and order are likely to suffer.

The community has to do its part. And school people have to do theirs: provide an orderly learning environment. That means having high expectations of all kids, making rules that are fair--and making them stick.

Children need rules. That's one of the ways they learn. A youngster who assaults a teacher or a fellow student must suffer immediate--and serious--consequences, for his sake and for the sake of the other students. (They're all learning something from this experience.) A youngster who is violent or disruptive needs a different setting. That can be a separate special school or a separate setting within the same school.

Smaller things matter, too. Lateness, for example. Or littering. Or rudeness.

I remember very well what happened a couple of years ago in a tough high school in the Bronx. There was a discipline code, but it was not consistently enforced, and the place was out of control. The halls were chaotic; kids wandered into class whenever they felt like it . So when a new principal came on the scene, the teachers went to him and pressed him to do something. Together, they worked out a plan. One important element was that kids would not be allowed to come to class late. When the bell rang, teachers would shut their doors, and students who were in the hall would be subject to a penalty under the new code.

They Held Firm

The students got plenty of warning about the crackdown, and so did their parents, but many of the kids didn't take it seriously. So the first day, dozens were shut out of class and sent to a detention room. The teachers and the principal held firm, and the number of truants got smaller every day. By the end of a couple of weeks, lateness was no longer a problem; and the climate in the school began to change. Students had been walking the halls all day, but thanks to strict enforcement of a simple rule, they were now attending class. And the whole atmosphere of the school was changing.

Schools cannot cope with some things. People with guns and drugs to sell are committing crimes, and they are for the police to handle. But we can do a remarkable amount by making rules that insist on proper standards and by enforcing them--fairly, consistently, unflinchingly. We have to remember that children in school--and they are children no matter how tough they look--need just what they need at home: adults to take responsibility.