A Disturbing Spike in School Drug Infractions

As I look over the backup provided for disciplinary infractions over the last two month period, I see a disturbing spike in drug possession/use on our campuses.

For the last two month period, we are removing 25 students for drug violations.  Several of these offenses are for prescription pills, but the lion's share are for Marijuana possession/use.

I do not know what to attribute this rise to--could it be a growing problem outside in our community?
Yes, I'm certain that plays a part.

Could it be the non-stop barrage of media coverage glowingly describing the states that have legalized recreational marijuana?  Yes, I think this serves to make marijuana appear to be more benign than some other hard drugs like LSD or Crystal Meth or Flakka.

Could it be the non-stop barrage of media seeking to legalize medical pot in Florida?  Yes, I think this contributes to the narrative that pot is no more harmful than Beer or Whisky--even though researchers from Northwestern University recently debunked the myth that Pot is safe--proving that marijuana use by adolescents rewires brain structure--even with infrequent use.

Marijuana is a dangerous hallucinogenic drug, but society wants to sell a different narrative and it is working.

And more students are bringing this drug into our schools which should be setting off all kinds of alarms bells.

I'm going to talk about it, and I'm going to ask if we are still diligently conducting our drug dog sweeps and conducting our randomized drug testing of athletes  as the board has approved.

And of course I will never stop advocating for swift and significant punishment for those that bring drugs to school, even as I see these punishments being minimized with greater frequency now than ever before.

It takes a combined, diligent effort to combat this problem.

Getting Better Numbers, Part II

Everyone involved in schools wants fewer student expulsions and suspensions.

Everyone wants lower numbers, just like the cholesterol commercials.

But like the pharmaceutical statins that reduce cholesterol and also have significant side-effects like turning livers into shoe-leather---lowering numbers of suspensions just to get “lower numbers” has side-effects, trade-offs, and unintended consequences as well.

For example, in the Escambia County school district for the months of May and June 2015—there are only (4) students being expelled.  Considering we have just over 40,000 students—this 4 expulsion stat is a small number, right?

The reality—we had during the same period 87 “disciplinary changes of placement” which is the dandy new term we use for what used to be called expulsions just two short years ago. Drugs, weapons, fights, abusive conduct—yeah, now all of these infractions are handled with “disciplinary reassignments”

We get lower expulsions by changing what we call punishment, and everybody golf-claps—but in reality the discipline problems are getting worse but because we are expelling fewer students than ever, the illusion is that things are “better.”

But things are not better.

  Things are getting worse. 

I recently spoke to an administrator who showed me pictures of physical injuries she has sustained in

Do We Really Need to Build a Brand New Middle School?

...Or should we plan prudently, address the issues in a different way, and save $30+ Million?

Do we really need to build a brand new, $35 Million Dollar Middle School in Escambia County right now?

 

Is this the best way to spend $35 Million Dollars?

We desperately need, at a minimum, two new Elementary Schools, in order to alleviate the current massive over-crowding at Helen Caro, Blue Angels, Beulah, and Pine Meadow Elementary Schools.

We need these elementary schools yesterday—and everybody knows this!

(Beulah elementary has 18 portables out back; Pine Meadow has at least 10!)

But why build a brand new middle school to fix this elementary school problem? 

We could solve all of these facilities  issues with an immediate WFHS site-swap with Woodham middle and the construction of two brand new K-8 facilities (one to address overcrowding at Beulah, Pine Meadow, and Ransom---and one to address  lingering overcrowding at Helen Caro, Blue Angels, and Jim Bailey)  --but apparently K-8s are no longer considered as viable alternatives, even though we had a West-side K-8 facility in the 5 year work plan for a decade until it was removed from the facilities work plan in 2012.

I think a K-8 out near the new Navy Federal was/is a solid idea.

So on July 11, 2013, after meeting with the top brass at NFCU-- I brought a proposal to the board to build a state of the art K-8facility in Beulah by the ever- expanding NFCU headquarters in order  to address  expansive growth at Beulah, Pine Meadow, and Ransom. 

We could have partnered with NFCU, and potentially lured some newly transplanted employees of NFCU into buying here in Escambia County instead of moving to Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, or Baldwin County—as had been the trend for most of those incoming employees with school-aged children according to NFCU officials.

 

Nope, that idea was shot down—but I was told (and it is inthe minutes) that plans were in the works to get an elementary school built out there to address the overcrowding at Beulah and Pine Meadow.

Two years later ---and the new elementary school was never built.  Beulah and Pine Meadow are still

Getting Better Numbers, Part I

A common metric being used around the country to show that school districts are "taking misbehavior seriously" is the lowered number of suspensions and expulsions.

We do this locally as well.

At one school locally, those charged with managing the discipline are keenly aware that the numbers must be kept low, and these staff members know there is the potential for a lawsuit if too many students, particularly those of color, are suspended or expelled.

So different punishments are being utilized.  Teachers are told to re-direct misbehavior up to as many as four or five times and to "handle the misbehavior in your class, deal with it!"

In some cases this is appropriate--if the behavior is minor and can be corrected.

But what about students that bully and harass their classmates?

One middle school teacher I spoke with recently told me straight up he gets "cussed at all the time, the students get away with it and they know there is no meaningful consequence."  he continued "They know I have to fill out a behavior incident form, and even if I fill in all four parts in a day--it is still no guarantee the student will receive a written referral"

It is not just happening here.  Instead of having real "courageous conversations" about strict enforcement of discipline, many districts are weakening the ramifications of bad behavior to make "numbers better."

Tacoma, Washington is changing the way they handle discipline.  They are being pressurred into lowering their suspension and expulsion numbers.  They are also, apparently buying in to the flawed notion that in order for minority students to learn, they need to have minority teachers teaching them.  (I think that is garbage, good teachers come from all cultures and backgrounds, and are good whether they are White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, or any nationality.  There should not be a racial quota system in hiring teachers.) 

From today's  News Tribune:

"If a student uses profanity, for example, she believes there are alternatives to suspension. In some cases, Santorno said, students might try to use that kind of language to goad a teacher into suspending them because they want to be out of school.  Another factor: While more than half of Tacoma students are students of color, 86 percent of its more than 2,000 faculty members are white, as are the vast majority of teachers statewide.  Last year, Tacoma began a new program called the Tacoma Whole Child Initiative which uses positive discipline techniques. Instead of telling kids what they can’t do, it spells out what they can and should do. The goal is to make sure schools meet the needs of students not just academically but also socially and emotionally. That often requires understanding a student’s cultural background.  If a student is disrespectful to an adult, Franklin staff use the episode as a “teachable moment.” Instead of sending the child immediately to the office, teachers instead review their expectation of how to behave respectfully."

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/06/07/3829049/new-state-data-on-student-discipline.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/06/07/3829049/new-state-data-on-student-discipline.html#storylink=cpy

Scapegoating the Wrong People Slowly Destroys Communities and Schools

I see disturbing parallel similarities in the way schools, teachers, and administrators are being blamed when students are subjected to punishment for incidents of misbehavior in public schools, and in the way police are being targeted when simply doing their jobs in challenging urban environments.  

 In both schools and society, generally speaking, what leads people into trouble is poor personal choices and the lack of a solid family foundation—not bigotry or poverty! 

As the genuine practice of religion has evaporated along with the nuclear family in parts of urban America today, there’s been a proportionate rise in violence, drug abuse, social decay, and failing schools in such communities. 

The Federal Government has exacerbated this problem; with ever-expanding entitlements that have disincentivized work and made fatherless households convenient and renumerative—what else did the social justice engineers that developed these “programs” expect?

The radical,so-called  social justice organizations that point fingers of blame will never acknowledge the real cause of all of these troubling symptoms:  There is a lack of functional, effective family structure in large swaths of America today. 

It remains much more salacious, newsworthy, and lucrative to instead portray teachers, cops, school districts, and police departments as “overzealousbigots.”

Police Departments are fully capable of doing their jobs if they are allowed to do so and if they’re supported by their respective cities and counties.  Policemen should be commended for doing the dangerous work they do!

Instead, the minute something tragic happens like in Baltimore or Ferguson---politicians of every stripe immediately pounce on LEOs. 

Before you know it, abracadabra, it is entirely the police’s fault that communities are dysfunctional and disproportionate numbers of minorities are incarcerated.

Next come the outlandish explanations from the ideologues that demonize police—the tactics are too aggressive, departments need re-training, they need more diverse workforces, etc. etc... 

Once these naïve rubes get exactly they want- crime rates soar.  Police back away from proactive

Newpoint: North Carolina Asking Questions about Newpoint Issues Here Prior to Newpoint Schools opening There.....

...Apparently there are several pending applications by Newpoint for schools in North Carolina.

An administrator with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has requested the electronically available public records pertaining to Escambia County's investigation into our Newpoint schools here locally.  What was requested by this NC official, and what was provided yesterday, were the following:

1.  The redacted electronic copy of my initial package of information from a whistle-blower.

2.  A redacted copy of Tab "5" from the district's binder.

These officials are paying close attention to the media surrounding Newpoint schools both here and in Panama City.

Will the issues here lead to charter application denials in North Carolina??

We shall see.

Newpoint and the Day of the Long Knives....

Communication provided to terminated Newpoint staff today, 6-2-2015

I have been contacted by several now former employees of Newpoint schools in Pensacola.

According to these sources, all Newpoint staff have been terminated as of today.

Staff has been told they may receive the rest of their pay if adequate funding remains in their schools' accounts after today.  Otherwise, these staff members are being directed to apply for unemployment and to contact the Escambia County School Board if they have additional concerns.

Several staff were on 12 month salary schedules and want to be paid the monies owed to them for June, July and August.

Superintendent of schools Malcolm Thomas has told me he is withholding Newpoint's June payment of approximately $140,000 and will not release this money until he has assurance that all financial obligations owed by Newpoint, including salaries to their employees, have been met.

Much more to come on this entire mess,