Student Discipline

Incumbent Sandra H. French appeared headed for re-election to the Howard County school board last night, and former school teacher Laura Waters was leading two other candidates vying for a second seat.French was ahead with 37.39 percent of the vote; Waters had 23.85 percent of the vote with 85 of 87 precincts reporting.Early results followed the pattern from the September primary, where French and Waters led a field of seven candidates. Engineer Arthur Neal Willoughby and transportation manager Glenn Amato, the other primary election winners, had 20.06 and 18.36 percent, respectively.

A student sent to the principal's office for serious misbehavior three times in one marking period could be suspended for up to five days under rules proposed by a conduct committee.In addition to the "three strikes, you're out" policy, the committee is recommending two others: one that would require parental notification when a student is counseled about behavior by an administrator; the other that would ban clothing that depicts drug use, sexually suggestive messages, violence and profanity.

Although I have been reluctant to respond to the numerous misrepresentations of facts over the past several months, I am compelled to set the record straight.In the fall of 1995, the Board of Education outlined a process for selecting a superintendent that involved all of the stakeholders in the Baltimore County public schools.Numerous community groups were invited to help the board develop a profile of the ideal superintendent, and many groups and individuals responded by sharing written comments and scheduling private interviews with the search consultant.

Maybe there was a time when the most serious discipline problem in the schools was an occasional spitball or a playground brawl. No more.Nowadays, student misconduct not only disrupts the classroom, it threatens lives. Violence has become so commonplace in Baltimore City schools, the City Council on Monday voted unanimously to hire more police officers to patrol the school hallways.Today, the Anne Arundel County Board of Education will look for its own solutions to the discipline dilemma when it considers tougher policies proposed by Superintendent Carol S. Parham.

Maybe there was a time when the most serious discipline problem in the schools was an occasional spitball or a playground brawl. No more.Nowadays, student misconduct not only disrupts the classroom, it threatens lives. Violence has become so commonplace in Baltimore schools, the City Council on Monday voted unanimously to hire more police officers to patrol the school hallways.Today, the Anne Arundel County Board of Education will look for its own solutions to the discipline dilemma when it considers tougher policies proposed by Superintendent Carol S. Parham.

People say Old Court Middle School's new principal Cheryl Pasteur is pretty tough, but they don't know the half of it."I was an FBI agent," said Ms. Pasteur, who specialized in developing sources and investigating terrorist activities with the bureau from 1984 to 1988. "It taught me to listen, I mean really listen, beyond what the words say."A petite powerhouse with the disciplinary standards of a drill sergeant and a love of students born of years as an educator, Ms. Pasteur is set to guide Old Court through the first year of an innovative program designed to raise students self-esteem and productivity while helping teachers do a better job. She has worked in the education system on and off since 1971.

On the verge of expulsion from Glen Burnie Senior High School, Scott Pogar was ready to start flipping hamburgers or selling drugs. Jaded and haggard, the eighth-grader was sent to Annapolis and a school of last resort.The place where he landed, the Adams Park Learning Center, helped him find a love of physics and a spot on the honor roll. The troubled teen-ager got a second chance, and last week, so did his school."We thought it was pretty much a done deal that we would have to move," said learning center Principal James I. Lyons.

Three years and three studies later, Anne Arundel County schools are trying some different ways to improve students' behavior."I think we've been rather fortunate in this county," said Dr. Carol S. Parham, superintendent of schools. "But we couldn't continue to bury our heads in the sand. We need to be pro-active. We're getting more students who come to school bringing with them more issues . . . that we have to deal with."Since fall 1990, the number of assaults, verbal threats and possession or use of weapons by students in schools has grown steadily.

More women must be encouraged to participate in Anne Arundel County school sports programs to help erase a 3-to-1 ratio of male to female coaches, according to a committee.The Gender Equity Committee is scheduled to give its report, and recommendations for changing school sports programs, to the eight-member county school board later today.The meeting, at school headquarters on Riva Road in Annapolis, is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m.; the equity report is scheduled to be presented at 1:50 p.m.In a written report distributed this week, the committee noted that all of the athletic directors at the county's 12 high schools are male, and that there are only two female assistant athletic directors.

The only question left is how many more victims there will be before people have satisfied their lust to batter Columbia's Wilde Lake High School.First, the school had its image badly tarnished by a group of clawing parents from the Centennial High School district, who chose to fight a redistricting plan by denigrating Wilde Lake, the school to which their children would have been transferred.Now, the battle has been joined inside the school, with a white vice principal squaring off against black parents over the issue of student discipline.

If only this were really about second chances. I have little doubt that Maryland's athletic director and its men's basketball coach spend most of their time operating on the same page. They both want to win. They want athletes in class. They want them to stay out of trouble. For the better part of 14 years, whatever battles they had remained relatively minor. As long as shared goals, expectations and standards remained consistent, life at Comcast Center rolled on. But what we have this week doesn't feel like a simple misunderstanding or just another blip in the relationship.

A report on student discipline released by Anne Arundel County school officials shows that the number of students expelled fell more than 13 percent from the 2003-2004 school year to last year. According to the report, issued last week, 391 students were expelled in the 2004-2005 school year, down from the 451 expelled in 2003-2004. Also, fewer major disciplinary offenses were reported. However, in a poll of seventh- and 11th-graders last school year, fewer said they felt safe in their classrooms compared with the previous year.

Rule-breakers, beware: Anne Arundel County school officials are revamping the way they deal with students who misbehave. After spending the better part of this school year making changes to raise student achievement, Superintendent Eric J. Smith told the school board last night that he is turning his attention to creating a "safe and orderly environment." Changes will include consistent enforcement of discipline in county schools, prescribing punishments aimed at discouraging repeat offenses, and offering more support for students who break the rules.

Incumbent Sandra H. French appeared headed for re-election to the Howard County school board last night, and former school teacher Laura Waters was leading two other candidates vying for a second seat.French was ahead with 37.39 percent of the vote; Waters had 23.85 percent of the vote with 85 of 87 precincts reporting.Early results followed the pattern from the September primary, where French and Waters led a field of seven candidates. Engineer Arthur Neal Willoughby and transportation manager Glenn Amato, the other primary election winners, had 20.06 and 18.36 percent, respectively.

Although I have been reluctant to respond to the numerous misrepresentations of facts over the past several months, I am compelled to set the record straight.In the fall of 1995, the Board of Education outlined a process for selecting a superintendent that involved all of the stakeholders in the Baltimore County public schools.Numerous community groups were invited to help the board develop a profile of the ideal superintendent, and many groups and individuals responded by sharing written comments and scheduling private interviews with the search consultant.

A student sent to the principal's office for serious misbehavior three times in one marking period could be suspended for up to five days under rules proposed by a conduct committee.In addition to the "three strikes, you're out" policy, the committee is recommending two others: one that would require parental notification when a student is counseled about behavior by an administrator; the other that would ban clothing that depicts drug use, sexually suggestive messages, violence and profanity.

People say Old Court Middle School's new principal Cheryl Pasteur is pretty tough, but they don't know the half of it."I was an FBI agent," said Ms. Pasteur, who specialized in developing sources and investigating terrorist activities with the bureau from 1984 to 1988. "It taught me to listen, I mean really listen, beyond what the words say."A petite powerhouse with the disciplinary standards of a drill sergeant and a love of students born of years as an educator, Ms. Pasteur is set to guide Old Court through the first year of an innovative program designed to raise students self-esteem and productivity while helping teachers do a better job. She has worked in the education system on and off since 1971.

On the verge of expulsion from Glen Burnie Senior High School, Scott Pogar was ready to start flipping hamburgers or selling drugs. Jaded and haggard, the eighth-grader was sent to Annapolis and a school of last resort.The place where he landed, the Adams Park Learning Center, helped him find a love of physics and a spot on the honor roll. The troubled teen-ager got a second chance, and last week, so did his school."We thought it was pretty much a done deal that we would have to move," said learning center Principal James I. Lyons.

Maybe there was a time when the most serious discipline problem in the schools was an occasional spitball or a playground brawl. No more.Nowadays, student misconduct not only disrupts the classroom, it threatens lives. Violence has become so commonplace in Baltimore City schools, the City Council on Monday voted unanimously to hire more police officers to patrol the school hallways.Today, the Anne Arundel County Board of Education will look for its own solutions to the discipline dilemma when it considers tougher policies proposed by Superintendent Carol S. Parham.

Maybe there was a time when the most serious discipline problem in the schools was an occasional spitball or a playground brawl. No more.Nowadays, student misconduct not only disrupts the classroom, it threatens lives. Violence has become so commonplace in Baltimore schools, the City Council on Monday voted unanimously to hire more police officers to patrol the school hallways.Today, the Anne Arundel County Board of Education will look for its own solutions to the discipline dilemma when it considers tougher policies proposed by Superintendent Carol S. Parham.