Counterpoint: Balanced discipline is part of an education

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In reading Myron Medcalf's column "Detention law gives small kids fairer start" (July 16), I appreciated his point of view, as a Black man and parent of a Black child navigating the public school system. I thought perhaps readers would welcome a different perspective, coming from a lifelong educator and parent of three educators currently working in the Twin Cities area.

As a now-retired speech and language pathologist, I have been employed within the field of special education for over 50 years. My experiences have included 10 years within a mental health center in inner-city Minneapolis, many years within the public school system as both a service provider and special education evaluator, and 10 years as a special education supervisor at one of our state universities. I have interacted with students in hundreds of classrooms throughout the state, and have experienced "diversity" in many forms, including race, social status, family background and educational ability.

Unfortunately, as many educators would attest, the behavioral problems encountered in today's schools far exceed trivialities such as students "... bouncing up and down hallways, cracking jokes or running across playgrounds." One is more likely to see students out of control, overturning desks, accosting fellow students, running from their classrooms or even running away from their schools. Disorderly behaviors such as these seem to have become more commonplace since the pandemic, when the majority of students were denied daily access to school.

My son is currently a special education teacher working with kindergarten and first grade students. In a typical day, he is called upon to manage behaviors such as all of these, while at the same time trying to teach kids basic academic skills. In one situation he observed a co-teacher trying to intervene as one young student was beating up another. In trying to pull the students apart, she was bitten on her breast by the attacking student.

My son attempted to stop an "out-of-control" kindergartner from kicking in his classroom door. He was slapped so hard across the face that he lost his eyeglasses and developed a huge welt across his cheek.

In another incident, he worked in his small, individualized classroom with a student who, due to a physical disability, struggled to write his numbers from 1-10. The child finally and triumphantly completed his paper, only to have it ripped up in front of him by an out-of-control student having a "meltdown." Both were students of color.

Many teachers have reported to me that aberrant behaviors such as these are not met with consequences. Students are often just returned to their classrooms, where such behaviors are repeated. Teachers are unable to teach and students are unable to learn when their classrooms and safety are continually disrupted.

Unfortunately, socioeconomic factors tend to complicate issues of behavior and racial identity. It is a known fact that students in impoverished communities are disproportionately likely to be of nonwhite racial minorities. Many students in lower-income communities are being raised in single-parent homes, often by mothers or even grandmothers. Food insecurity and other family stresses can impact neurodevelopment as well as behavior. "Adverse childhood experiences" are now recognized as significant developmental factors as well.

The purpose of public education is to teach not only academics, but also the appropriate social interactions required in a civil society. In today's world, disruptive, destructive behaviors are often met with no consequences. For example, my teenage grandson worked last year at a shoe store. He reported that groups of kids would often storm into the store pulling shoes off racks and running away with them.

Medcalf quotes an advocate of the new policies saying "... this bill, at least, begins to put strong guidance ... through the law, that says, 'You know what? We're not going to call you racist, but you can't do this under these circumstances with these types of students." Unfortunately, this type of statement is often interpreted by administrators to mean: "You can't discipline students of color without being called racist." In a school in which two-thirds of the population are students of color, this implies that teachers simply cannot discipline students.

Admittedly, this is a complicated state of affairs. But teachers are increasingly leaving the field, or at least leaving schools with high minority populations. My son started the past school year as one of a team of three special educators, along with a paraprofessional. Two of those teachers have chosen to leave, as has the para, leaving the school with yawning vacancies only weeks before the start of a new school year. In St. Paul, new special educators are offered a $10,000 signing bonus, if they will teach for two years.

In short, there needs to be some balance in decisions regarding student discipline, based in part on the input of teachers. The student who regularly accosts fellow students or adult educators may need to miss recess once in awhile.

Jane Harris, of Lakeville, is a retired special educator.