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The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on
September 4, 2002
Philadelphia vows tougher discipline in schools
By Susan Snyder
Inquirer Staff Writer
When Philadelphia students return to class tomorrow, a new code of conduct
and more stringent discipline will rule.
Even principals will face discipline - they could be fired - if
they fail to report violent acts to police and the district immediately.
So says the district's revised Code of Student Conduct, which is
being widely distributed in and out of schools this week.
"There is no discretion now. They must be reported and disciplinary
action is then triggered," chief executive Paul G. Vallas said.
"At the end of the day, you've got to be tough. Children have
got to know that schools are safe havens."
The new policies include a wide range of steps and signal a stark
shift in discipline and attitude in the 200,000-student district.
A 24-hour "bully hotline" for problems to be reported
has been activated, and a list of "victims' rights" will
be distributed in schools.
The district will expand the capacity of the private alternative
school that handles many of its disruptive students by 800 slots
so that more violent offenders can be ejected from regular classrooms,
and those returning from juvenile detention have a transition step.
And, in another twist, students who commit crimes outside of school
could also be subject to punishment. They, too, could be sent to
the disciplinary schools.
"If we're notified about a serious offense on Sunday, we can
take action to transfer a student on Monday," Vallas said yesterday
at a news conference at the district's headquarters.
For several years, the district has been the focus of a state legislative
probe, which has alleged inconsistent discipline policies and lax
enforcement.
When the state took over the district in December, the newly appointed
School Reform Commission made reducing violence a top priority and
announced last spring that more stringent discipline would be enforced.
Vallas, who was hired in July, also embraced the issue and further
beefed up procedures, including yesterday's warning to principals
that they could be fired for failure to report violence.
State Rep. John Taylor, a Philadelphia Republican who heads the
legislative subcommittee on violence, attended the news conference
and said he believed a new era in discipline had begun.
"I'm totally convinced that he's going to attempt to do it,"
Taylor said. "We're further along than we've ever been."
Principals and other school officials also said they largely supported
the policy shift.
"From my perspective, in the past I was mainly concerned about
the ambiguity of the reporting system," said George DiPilato,
president of the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators,
who was on a School Reform Commission task force on violence. "But
we've cleaned things up and made it very simple for principals to
report. They will report everything."
While Vallas and the school commission said they have removed the
"discretion" of principals in reporting incidents, one
administrator noted that a certain amount of judgment always would
be involved.
"There are judgments to be made on a daily basis as to whether
or not an altercation between students rises to a level that needs
to have a serious incident report," said Harris Lewin, who
oversees schools in the Northeast. "I always encourage principals
to err on the side of reporting."
Olney High School principal Ed Monastra said he routinely reported
incidents. "It made absolutely no sense to me why you would
not want to report these things. To sweep them under the rug is
not going to solve the problems," he said.
In the past, the teachers' union and others have complained that
some principals covered up incidents to make their schools look
better.
Vallas expects compliance. He instituted a similar policy in Chicago,
where he headed the public schools for six years. He said he only
had to fire one principal for failure to comply, and that, he said,
"provoked an amazing response from everybody else."
All incidents of student misconduct must be reported to district
officials, Vallas said, while crimes also must be reported to police.
Among the policy changes, district employees will be asked to make
a more conscientious effort to help victims of violence, Vallas
said, noting that this school year marks the first time that a list
of victims' rights is being circulated.
"In addition to cracking down and dealing with violent offenders,
we have to deal with the students who are victims of violence,"
he said.
Crisis-intervention teams, including police, community members and
others, have been created to help schools when incidents occur,
Vallas said.
In broadening the district's capacity to deal with violent students,
Vallas said Community Education Partners would create 400 slots
for students returning from juvenile detention. Under a recently
enacted state law, those students cannot go back to regular classrooms
but must go into a transition program.
CEP will add another 400 slots for violent students who are removed
from the regular schools, Vallas said. The private company already
runs a school for 1,200 disruptive district students.
The firm will house some of the students at its current site and
the others at one of the district's three in-house disciplinary
schools, which CEP will comanage. With the additions, the district's
disciplinary schools and CEP will have the capacity for about 2,300
students.
Vallas also said he would like to phase out the district's in-house
disciplinary schools within the next year and look to hire private
operators to do the job.
"I just think there are private providers out there that do
a far better job," he said, adding that the district does not
have adequate rehabilitation programs and that the buildings used
are hard to secure.
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