Respect Thy Teachers…

An Administrator’s Perspective on Restorative Practices

Not long after becoming a superintendent I had two experiences that woke me up to the chilling fact that teachers were no longer safe in their own classrooms. Given the respect that I know was expected for adults in my home, it is hard to fathom how blatantly students could disrespect their teachers, but these two experiences brought to light the danger our teachers face in schools. The first incident involved a principal in one of our elementary buildings who was attacked by one of his students, and the next thing I knew he was in a sling. The second incident involved a student having a “meltdown” in a summer school classroom after he refused to do the work that was assigned to him in class that day. The student cussed out the teacher and literally re-arranged all the furniture in the classroom before police arrived to address the disruption. I knew that the problem was going to get worse if something wasn’t done about this problem and I knew if it was to be taken seriously it had to begin with me, the leader of the district.

I had read about Restorative Practices, but knew that simply allowing a student to correct themselves, especially when dealing with disrespect towards a staff member was simply not enough. Our district had previously gone through the required training with PBIS and we had also received funding to implement SWIS (School Wide Information System) as part of that initial PBIS implementation. While we were trying to enter the data, as was often the case, we got bogged down with entering data and failed to use it appropriately to inform our decision-making. We were doing a pretty good job of actually tracking the numbers, but were not really using the data to implement changes in policy or practice. We were good at “admiring the problem,” but had failed to solve it.

One of the things I knew NOT to do was give my idea a name. If you ever want to kill a good idea give it a name and roll it out as a new “initiative.” Teachers hate initiatives. In fact, they don’t care much for the terms program or system either. Because we have been conditioned to be cynical about any kind of change in school, it is really important to introduce it carefully to the staff. Even though in many cases teachers want changes, their idea of change, and yours may not be the same thing. I knew our teachers wanted to be made to feel safe. So at the same time I was doing my “Restorative Practices” experiment, we were also introducing a “Respect” campaign and a couple years later we ran everyone back through the PBIS training (required by Ohio law) again.

While our Respect “Campaign” could be considered an “initiative” it’s pretty hard to argue with the emphasis we were placing on showing respect. We created a logo, printed posters and t-shirts, we had conversations in all of our buildings about our operational practices and what “Respect” looked like and sounded like for students, staff, parents, and our community. We had experienced a great deal of success with our district-wide The Leader in Me Program and our Respect campaign was intended to be reinforcement of the cultural changes we had been successfully making in the district for several years.

You’re probably wondering, what exactly was your Restorative Practice? As I mentioned I wanted our faculty and staff to feel safe in their classrooms and starting with those two previously mentioned situations I had observed far too many incidents of students cursing at teachers, threatening teachers and in some cases assaulting teachers. In our Code of Conduct these things were major violations and would result in a mandatory suspension from school. While there has been increasing pressure to reduce suspensions as a result of state testing, local report cards, learning loss, and inequities in suspension occurrences in at-risk subgroups, to eliminate the suspensions altogether would have resulted in a mutiny and there was a risk that doing anything that seemed more lenient would lead to an increase in these student violations which was simply not acceptable. Leniency wasn’t the answer, but doing nothing different would not solve the problem either. Something had to be done. The message needed to remain clear: Students are expected to respect adults at all times in our schools.

My plan was fairly simple: Students who swore at, threatened, or assaulted a staff member would be suspended for a minimum of five days from school AND in order to return to school their parents WERE REQUIRED to meet with me, the Superintendent. The purpose of the meeting was not to appeal the suspension, rehash any of the facts regarding the student’s behavior, or place blame on the teacher, school or administrator regarding the behavior or the events leading up to the incident. The purpose of the meeting was four-fold: 1) Get the parents and administrators working together in the best interest of the student, 2) Reinforce the responsibilities of the student, parents, and the administrators to protect the safety of the teachers, 3) Do everything possible to ensure the behavior does not re-occur, and 4) Provide the parents and the student with the resources necessary to get whatever help is needed.

In my experience some parents are convinced that either the teacher or the principal is out to get them. Believe it or not, students who act out regularly place blame on others for their behavior, and too often, for one reason or another, parents often defend their child’s behavior. With the growing use of social media for parents to criticize school officials, respect for teachers and principals is at an all-time low and often people will take to social media to threaten the job security of teachers and principals and enlist the support of others to undermine the decision of school leaders. As a superintendent, I did not interact with many students on a daily basis so I found that I often had more leverage as an educator because I did not interact regularly with the student so parents usually did not have reason to think I had “it in” for their child, which of course I did not. That credibility was extremely helpful in ensuring that the meeting with the parents went well. I also found that when my assistant called to schedule the meeting, because I was superintendent, the parents were willing to meet with me. In two years, I only had one parent who would not meet with me in person. The use of my formidable position, not me the person, was helpful in getting the cooperation of parents. This is a big reason why I think this was a powerful strategy.

It was very important to set the proper tone for the meeting with the parents. Showing them respect, making them feel valued, patiently listening, and outlining the purpose and procedures of the meeting was really important. In every case the parents were cooperative with me. They understood why they were there and I think appreciated the fact that I was actually trying to help them as parents by speaking with their children about their inappropriate behavior. In some cases they were at their wit’s end trying to deal with the behavior in their homes too. Some were relieved that I was there to help and I’d like to think I showed them I was genuinely concerned for their son or daughter (because I was) and I wanted to get their child’s behavior back on track. Some times we discussed resources such as social workers, doctors, medication and other strategies that might be helpful, and I took as much time as was needed for the meeting.

One time I remember meeting with a family and let’s just say the parents were not being considered for “parents of the year.” In some cases it’s no wonder some of our students have behavior problems due to the manner in which they are being raised. That does not give me a right to be judgmental and critical, besides I cannot control what they do in their home anyway. After a few minutes of our meeting, I asked the student what his plans were for the rest of the day were, which was only his third day of suspension. Without flinching he said was going to “go home and play video games.” I was frustrated that the parents did not even pretend to be bothered by his statement or correct him. Of course, this is why this student was in my office to begin with. In my mind I thought “Oh no you’re not!” I instinctively reacted and politely explained to his parents that his suspension was over and contacted his teacher. We secured a chromebook (contained all he needed for class that day) for the student and I personally walked him to the class he was scheduled for at that time and discussed the reason for my appearance with his teacher. This was an excellent teacher and I think she understood the situation well. The farther behind the student was the more likely he would be to misbehave or miss even more school. It was more important in that case for the student to be back in school than it was to serve two more days of suspension playing video games.

I kept track of these meetings and followed up by communicating with the building’s principals. Oftentimes they were invited to the meetings with me, but unlike an expulsion hearing I usually was able to meet with the parents and students without the principals because our principals were already very busy. In the two years I adopted this Restorative Practice I met with more than 100 students and their parents. As I mentioned there was only one parent who refused to meet in my office and there were less than a handful of students who swore at, threatened or assaulted our staff who repeated their inappropriate behavior.

This practice did not completely prevent the disrespect from occurring, but there is no magic bullet for preventing any particular type of behavior. It was enlightening for me and along with PBIS, our Respect Campaign, and our use of software that would help us identify vulnerable times, locations, and practices we were making a concerted effort to ensure that our staff and students felt safe at school. There is no “one size fits all” strategy that will serve as a panacea for addressing these unwanted behaviors. A mentor of mine reminded me that I wasn’t a super-principal, I was a superintendent, and that dealing with these types of things were not something I should concern myself with, but for me, I felt that spending my time staying in touch with these types of issues and supporting my staff was important. Often times administrators and teachers do not connect enough with parents for a variety or reasons. I think the educators get too busy, or assume parents won’t support them, but I found the parents to be very supportive and it was a great opportunity for me to connect with them and help them and their children. I found the activity to be well worth the time and making those connections with parents is definitely worth the investment of time.

No program, initiative, or system can substitute for the investment of time, understanding, compassion, respect, empathy, and genuine concern. As a superintendent if we can model and lead these efforts in our districts a lot of things will eventually fall into place and a safe environment will be created in which teachers can effectively teach, and students will learn.