What Is Going on at Your School?

Abstract

“What is going on at your school?” Ron Brown, a school board member, seemed to be accusing rather than asking. Alice Swenson, Midland High School principal, hated those leading questions but knew what Ron was referring to: another big fight in her building. There were daily skirmishes and some pretty rough ones weekly, but this last one was particularly complicated to handle because it involved some of the new students with emotional/behavioral disabilities.

Ron continued, “We have got some pretty upset parents. There are a dozen calling me night and day, wanting to know what we are doing about all the fights and gang activity at Midland. Now I have three parents who want to know why their sons were suspended, when those special education kids did not get in trouble at all.” Parents appealed to Ron because he was vocal about “safe schools.” Alice responded that she was just as concerned as Ron about the safety of all children in her building. She outlined for the third time this fall what the high school was doing to turn the tide of increasing violence. But the current situation was more difficult to explain.

This year, as part of the movement toward more inclusive education, students with emotional/behavioral disabilities, who had been educated previously in separate facilities, were now attending Midland High School. From the beginning, Alice had been challenged to respond to complaints from general education teachers about having “them” in classes and to deal with what seemed like additional trouble attributed to these new students.

After the recent fight, the special education teacher reminded the principal that these students all had Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) with goals designed to improve self-control and to react appropriately when angry, protecting their rights to an appropriate education and necessitating an individualized approach to discipline. Alice explained this to the school board member, just as she had explained it to teachers and students in her school, yet with each explanation she grew less convinced. She was doing her best to provide a safe environment for all students, but it seemed that treating these students differentially was making it even harder.