Ada school reviews wall discipline
Ada principal says parents can request their children receive other punishments
BY VALLERY BROWN
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8
Published: October 31, 2009
ADA — Parents who object to a school policy of lining students up against the side of the brick school house as punishment can now put their names on a list, Willard Grade Center Principal Kevin Mann said Friday.
Students whose names are on the list will receive other punishments, Mann said. There are 386 fifth- and sixth-graders attending the school. So far, two students are on the list.
Mann said school officials are reviewing the policy after concerns were raised earlier this week by
Amy Caton, mother of a sixth-grader who was made to face the wall after not turning in his homework.
Caton said the policy is humiliating. She removed her son, Jonathan, from school for a week after a disagreement with Mann over the discipline.
"The new list is at least a compromise,” Caton said. "There are parents who agree with the policy, but there are some who weren’t aware of it.”
Caton said she’s still not sure whether she will bring the issue before the school board. She intends to talk to other parents to gauge their opinions.
Mann said he sees the punishment as a tool to correct behavior problems, not humiliation.
"But I can see that it could come across that way,” he said. "I’m not saying we won’t tweak it.”
Mann said the policy was in place before he took over as principal last year. Caton’s is the first complaint he’s received.
The discipline policy progresses in its severity, he said. Standing against the wall during recess is used to correct minor behavior problems. It is followed by after-school detention and restricting the student’s activities. The last and most severe discipline is expulsion.
"Our hands are tied in public schools as far as what we can do to correct behaviors,” Mann said. "We don’t want to humiliate kids. That’s not what we do.”
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I think the real issue however, is parents being parents and being responsible for their kids. Deadlines are a way of life. In the workforce you miss to many of them, you are out of a job. Kids have to learn this from an early age. I am a strong believer that when the paddle was taken out of the schools chaos entered in. Am I advocating paddling? I am not sure because kids aren't spanked at home so I don't think it won't do any good except having parents make a scene. I just see a correlation between the two. I feel sorry for teachers if the have 25 kids there are at least 30 bosses, the parents, and wouldn't you know they all are right. It's the teacher and or the schools fault. awd
will be before the police and/or judge saying, "My kid wasn't treated
fair and the punishment isn't fair". C'mon, help make sure your kid
is on the straight path.