Published: February 11, 2008 08:31 pm      

Education panel defers vote on student conduct

CHARLESTON — Hoping to turn West Virginia schools into “safe havens of learning,” the House Education Committee applauded Monday the intent of a proposed code of conduct sought by the American Federation of Teachers to deal with disruptive students.

But after some discussion, the panel’s co-chairman, Delegate Brady Paxton, D-Putnam, an experienced teacher, steered fellow delegates into shipping the bill off to a subcommittee for some fine-tuning.

Clear codes of conduct would be defined to deal with bullies intent on intimidating classmates or school employees.

While he supported the measure generally, Delegate Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, clearly was agitated by the idea of “spending scarce public dollars” to constantly deal with troublemakers who are disrupting classes.

Browning was particularly miffed at the prevailing method of setting up alternative teaching for miscreants.

“Why can’t we say, ‘If you can’t come to school and behave, we don’t want you’?” he asked.

Existing policy is a “three strikes and you’re out” if a student is given the boot from a class or school bus; the new bill would put the limit at two acts of misbehavior.

“Parents are vehement about discipline in school, unless it’s their kids,” Paxton said at one point.

The measure proposes the creation of a five-member panel at all schools to meet twice annually and look into behavior problems, then file a report with the county superintendent. It also calls for a “bill of rights” declaring students and employees alike being entitled to a safe environment, conducive to learning.

Bob Morgenstern, representing the AFT, told the panel the ideas for the bill came from separate surveys of education employees, including both teachers and support personnel, and the general public.

“They were pretty much identical,” Morgenstern said of the results that found discipline is a major problem and more steps are needed to address it.

Last month, the AFT’s leader in West Virginia, Judy Hale, told reporters that disruptive students rob the public education system of an entire day of instruction per week.

Hale said the AFT findings were that 56 percent of all teachers felt intimidated at times, and 45 percent of support personnel suffered the same difficulty. The poll revealed 24 percent of all education employees view bullying as a “major” problem, and 68 percent see it as “somewhat” of a problem.

Over the past two years, 30 percent of those surveyed found weapons, 71 percent felt verbal abuse was a problem, and 28 percent reported physical assault on teachers and 72 percent witnessed attacks against students.

Delegate Larry Williams, D-Preston, who heads an education subcommittee, said litigation has led to the alternate schooling concept as opposed to outright expulsion.

“I do think that school boards do sometimes bend the wrong way because they’re afraid of being sued,” education chair Mary Poling, D-Barbour, said as the panel delved into alternate education.

Delegate Dave Perry, D-Fayette, likewise supported the thrust of the bill but suggested that once attempts to modify bad behavior have been exhausted and the student hasn’t changed, the parents should get stuck with the tab of alternate schooling.

The Senate is working on a similar bill offered by another veteran teacher, Sen. Larry Edgell, D-Wetzel, aimed at dealing with bullies and maintaining safe classrooms.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com