Arundel (MD)Schools May Add Parents to the Punishment | Washington Post

[Ediacara]

Arundel Schools May Add Parents to the Punishment

By Vikki Ortiz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 7, 2003; Page B01

Students who break the rules in Anne Arundel County public schools may one day face a punishment that, for the typical kid, is far worse than detention: having to bring Mom or Dad to school with them for a day.

The idea -- essentially to embarrass students into good behavior without making them miss classroom time -- came from a task force of 20 Anne Arundel parents, teachers and educators working to revise the Code of Student Conduct. A draft of the group's proposals was presented to the county school board yesterday, and final approval of the code is due early next year.

The vast majority of the suggested punishments are standard, echoing codes used by school systems across the country. But then there's the clause proposing that a parent or guardian be required to tag along during a day of classes with any Anne Arundel student who has been caught disrupting class, skipping school or violating certain other rules.

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[Systematic Chaos]

1. And exactly WHAT percentage of parents will comply with that?

Nice idea but I don't see it working....

[Muddleoftheroad]

2. Parents who want their kids in school

The deal should be, you can return when you and your parent or guardian attend a full day together.

It is designed to be a wake-up call, not to the kids, but to the parents.

[jiacinto]

3. One problem

What about the parents who can't take off from work or the ones who will their pay if they have to be with their kids?

[Heddi]

4. They did this in Charleston Cty Schools in SC

back when I was in high-school.

The thing was, parents couldn't opt-out of attending school with the child because of financial reasons. Jobs weren't required to comply with parent's needs for time off, but the school would Expel or Suspend the kid if the parent's could get off work to come to school, and the parents would be fined a few hundred dollars as well.

This was used for the most eggregious student---chronic skippers, rule-breakers, trouble makers----

The worst part was the no-opt-out for parents. In South Carolina, a state that has VERY low average and mean incomes, and a state that isn't too worker's-rights friendly, I find it hard to beleive that many parents were able to attend classes with their children, especially given the fact that the MINIMUM attendance-time for parents was 1 week, I believe.

I understand the need for rules in public schools. I'm not sure that having parents take a day off from work (which in most cases I'm sure would be an unpaid day off) is the BEST thing for the students and their families in this case.

What would be accomplished if Jr. was such a troublemaker that Mom or Dad had to take a total of 9 days off from work throughout the year to attend school with him and ended up losing their jobs. WE're not in the Clinton Economy anymore, and a good paying, permanent job isn't that easy to come by like it used to be. So what happens---Jr. is still a meanace at school, and perhaps the only source of income for the family has just been fired, or denied promotion, or denied a raise.......

I'm not quite sure this is a solution, and if anything will end up creating more problems than it's looking to solve

[jiacinto]

5. Exactly

That's why I have problems with this. What happens to parents who can't afford to lose the income or would be fired if they had to go to school with their kids?

[bluestateguy]

6. YES

Shame is a poweful tool. We ought to use it.

[Cheswick2.0]

8. I hope you are being sarcastic

shame is a powerful tool, a powerfully negative tool. It serves no productive purpose.

[qanda]

7. This is my county

And I think this idea stinks. I agree that parents should take a central role in their child's education, but forcing them to perhaps lose their job, especially in this economy, is not a good plan. I agree that they should have to show up with their child when they bring them back from a suspension, but staying all day is a little much. I do homeschool, but if I choose to put my children in school it will have to be a private school.

[Cheswick2.0]

9. this will work great for single parents with unstable employment

</sarcasm> Nothing like making an almost impossible life more impossible. This is a societal problem, when are people going to realize that parents are not anymore the problem than teachers are?