Sunday, May 1, 2016

The Role of Discipline


When I sit in the loft of my home I am surrounded by the accolades bestowed on Crossland High School. Crossland is the high school in Prince George’s County, Maryland that I served as Principal from 2004 until 2013. The honors include three citations from the Governor of the State of Maryland, two citations from the State’s General Assembly, another citation from the Prince George’s County Council, and a feature article printed in the Washington Post. By no means do the honors stop there. We were also featured on the United States Department of Education’s “Doing What Works” website, named “School of the Year” for the National Capitol Region, praised by the Heritage Foundation from the political right and the Center for American Progress from the political left, and received an invitation from Michelle Obama for 50 of our students and staff to visit the White House. In other words, we did some really great stuff at Crossland.

In 2004, Crossland High School, with its 2100 students, was the worst of twenty-two high schools in Prince George’s County. The school was dangerous. The quality of the educational program was poor. The morale of its students, parents, and the surrounding community was poor as well. Hopeless was an accurate description of the school and all of its stakeholders. More than 65% of the students qualified for free and/or reduced meals, the government’s benchmark for poverty. In 2004, 15% of its students passed the State’s high school assessment for Algebra, 22% passed in English.

Crossland received all of the accolades mentioned above because we were able to change a culture of mediocrity, distrust, intimidation, and fear into a culture of respect for the individual, service to the community, and the pursuit of excellence. By 2013, test scores in Algebra had steadily increased to a passing rate of 76%, and English scores had improved to 78%. Students taking Advanced Placement classes had increased from 30 to more than 750. The school had been approved as an International Baccalaureate school, and 90% of its Seniors had applied to four-year colleges with at least a 70% acceptance rate for four consecutive years.

During my first year as Principal at Crossland my fellow Principals’ in the County teased me about having a pool to decide on when I would be fired. I quickly developed a reputation for being a very strict disciplinarian. We had many suspensions, so many in fact, that the other Principals were sure that the parental complaints would eventually result in my professional demise. Some of my students took to describing me as “Joe Clark”, the notorious Principal depicted in the movie “Lean on Me”.

The suspensions were the result of four simple rules that were put in place as soon as I arrived at the school. They were;

1.       No Profanity

2.       No Loitering

3.       No Class Disruptions

4.       No Fighting

All of the above violations resulted in suspensions. Initially, no one believed that such rules were possible, not until violators started going home. Eventually, the profanity that had been commonly used in classrooms and hallways ended, and respectful conversations became the norm. Eventually, the hallways became empty when classes were in session. Eventually, class disruptions ended, and teachers were able to teach, and students were able to learn. Eventually, the constant fighting ended, and students no longer were afraid for their safety while in school.



The rules, and the consequences for breaking those rules, were the only way that we could establish an environment that was conducive for teaching and learning. Once that was established, everything else was possible.



However, this was not a ”Zero Tolerance” environment. Our teachers, security, and administrators exercised discretion on a daily basis. The only zero tolerance situations were established by the Board of Education, and one of those was an automatic request for expulsion for any student bringing a weapon to school.



The “Principal’s Leadership Team”, was a special group of students at Crossland. They were my student advisory group, composed of one member from every student organization in the school. The members were personally selected by me at the beginning of each year. I met with them monthly, and we would have lunch and discuss everything that was going on in the school. We took field trips to Gettysburg, Pa., Monticello in Virginia, Harpers Ferry in West Virginia, and yearly trips to either Montreal, Quebec City, Niagara Falls, or Toronto in Canada. They were outstanding students, outstanding people, they were my student leaders. Membership on the Principal’s Leadership Team was something that was considered to be a tremendous honor. Our graduates wore a special collar on graduation day to indicate their membership. Some of the students that were selected as freshmen remained on the team for four years. They were in effect, leaders of leaders.

At the conclusion of one of our meetings, one of my senior students, a young lady that had been on the team for four years asked to speak to me in my office. When our meeting was over she got up to leave and when she picked up her purse a large knife fell on the floor. For several seconds neither one of us said a word. She knew the rules. Everybody in the school knew that if you were caught with ANY weapon it was an automatic expulsion. She was a senior. She was an honor student. She was already accepted to college. Her financial aid was already in place. I finally said, “sweetheart…what were you thinking???” She started to cry as she told me how she had been threatened, and was carrying the knife for protection. I picked up the knife and placed it in my desk drawer. I knew what I was supposed to do. I did not know what I was going to do. I told her I would talk to her the following morning, and sent her home.



I did not request the expulsion. I told no one what had happened. The student graduated, went to college, and graduated. Today she is married and a mother. I kept her knife in my desk drawer until I retired in 2013.



I’m glad I did not do, what I was supposed to do.    

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