Munster Times, Indiana, 30 April 1997

Phil Wieland column

Increased violence has schools looking for new solutions

Dealing with disruptive students was no problem 40 years ago when Mr. Middleton patrolled the hallways of Hambden Elementary School. He looked like Dennis the Menace's father, but you didn't want to mess with him.

Walking up the stairs to his office, the only room on the second floor and situated so he could peer down on the school's main-level hallway, was roughly akin to approaching the gallows, only more painful.

Chances were a visit to the principal's office meant a paddling, one that would echo the length of the building. As rare as those disciplinary demonstrations were, that echo was enough to keep me on the straight and narrow.

But I'm a wuss. Nowadays, it has become accepted knowledge that, while paddling might improve the principal's golf swing, it did as little to deter disruptive classroom behavior as sleeping on an atlas does to learn the state capitals. Don't ask me how I know the latter.

Gradually schools have steered away from the philosophy of discouraging violence with violence and resorted to detentions, suspensions, expulsions and alternative schools.

Reflecting society

Sauk Village District 168 Superintendent Thomas Ryan said kids used to face tougher punishment at home than that meted out at school. When the principal was done tenderizing your butt, he couldn't also ground you and take away TV until you were 40.

That's not the case today with two-career families and single-parent homes where children often are unmonitored. It's creating new problems that call for new approaches, such as the five-day suspension of a District 168 second-grader for bringing a dinosaur-shaped squirt gun to school.

"Historically there have been issues of violence, but they were isolated as opposed to the increasing frequency we are now experiencing," said Mary Jayne Broncato, former Joliet schools superintendent and now Illinois associate superintendent for education innovation and reform.

"It's reflective of society and something people in the schools were never trained for. The challenge is how do you make sure the environment is safe without generating an atmosphere of fear," Broncato said.

"All handle it differently, and there is no right way to do it," she said. "As we get more experience, we can learn from our mistakes and from each other how to deal with the practical matter that guns and weapons are a tremendous concern.

"You can't really develop a policy that will anticipate every circumstance. It has to be flexible to interpret each situation. But local districts reflect the feelings of the community and it might be that the administration is putting in place what the community wants."

The legal cost

Suspending a second-grader for a squirt gun seems a little like using nukes on mosquitoes. Ryan said the squirt gun could have had a lethal fluid, which is true. If it did, it's a police matter. If not, we're back to the nukes.

Hammond schools had cases of first-graders bringing real guns to school, but because they were first-graders, they weren't thinking about violence on classmates, Assistant Superintendent Thomas Knarr said. All they wanted to do was show their friends.

The administration's response was to put the kids up for expulsion, but with a condition. The children would be allowed back in school if the parents agreed to get them counseling. With squirt guns, the child's age and previous record are taken into consideration.

District 168's policy is understandable in light of today's get-rich-quick mentality, which forces schools to err on the side of caution to avoid charges of neglecting children's safety.

The intimidating echo of the paddle has been replaced by something even more terrifying. The phone call from a lawyer.