Community Chat

[Isobel Archer]

Charlottesville High School in Virginia was forced to close last Friday when teachers refused to work due to too much fighting between students.  School has been canceled until after the Thanksgiving break to give administrators time to try to restore order.

Not that Charlottesville High School even has a principal to mess with. Principal Rashaad Pitt announced his resignation earlier this month.

It was school policy not to punish students for breaking the rules, according to some CHS staffers. CHS counselor David Wilkerson wrote on Facebook, “The [Virginia Department of Education] would prefer that the data shows that no kids are being punished due to the correlation between punishing kids and a poor graduation rate. Administrators keep asking kids to do things that they do not wish to do and in the absence of consequences, the kids expand their misbehavior.”

[wagirl]

WHAT!!??? that is wrong on so many levels, I can't believe it!!! sounds like the the wrong people are running things-----

[Isobel Archer]

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- Parents, teachers, and students got the chance to talk about the recurring violence in the halls of Charlottesville High School at a forum put on by Charlottesville United for Public Education.

After a rash of student-on-student violence at Charlottesville High School, the School Board made the decision to close CHS on Monday and Tuesday for students.

The board says its purpose is to have a school reset as well as open discussion. 

In short, they are still working on a plan.

Charlottesville City Schools leaders say teachers had the opportunity to openly discuss concerns with administrators like superintendent Royal Gurley.

"Today teachers are working, CHS has a lot of cafeteria spaces so teachers have gathered in that space with administrators like Dr. Gurley and much of the central office staff. They are then at times doing a whole group exercise, at times they're breaking out into small groups to brainstorm and have just honest discussion with one another about the discussion prompts," said Beth Cheuk, Supervisor of Public Relations for Charlottesville City Schools.

OK so they are brainstorming about what they can do.  Gee, I wonder if they will decide to actually enforce their rules.  That's an idea.

[Ronettes]

Unfortunately, this is becoming the 'normal' in the last couple of years -

I've seen videos of teenagers in school misbehaving, standing on top of desks and screaming, fighting, and one girl throwing a chair at the teacher, knocking her unconscious.

The result of permissiveness and no consequences or punishment.

Ridiculous.

[FatCatinCT]

My son got his EdM just when the "no child left behind" law came into effect.  He taught advanced placement sciences and many students were not up to par.  He hated it and only taught one year and went into consulting which for him, was the best thing!  Makes 4 plus times more than teaching and loves what he does. 

Sometimes, the powers that be just aren't right.  Kids need disipline and consequences.

[Ronettes]

One 'plan' could be to expel any troublemakers permanently, which would force the parents to enroll them in an expensive private school.

If I had young children today, I would never allow them to attend public schools, they would be exposed to so many dreadful behaviors.

[stevieb]

Perhaps they should give those kids acting out the most a trophy, you know, and maybe a new car too...

[Lakelife62]

Sounds to me like the teachers are in charge. And the Teachers Union. They are the ones that decided that they would call in on Friday and ask the school to close yesterday and today. 
Good for them. An 18 year old non-student was let into the school on Thursday and caused the fight that required police.

The little reading I've done on this (because it has happened forever and happens everywhere, but teachers and unions are now legitimately concerned with weapons) indicated there's a roving band of about 30 kids out of 1400 who are disrupting the school.

Those kids and their parents need to be dealt with.

[Sooner]

No consequences for bad behavior or law breaking in this country!  We're just so sorry you have to be that way and we'll pet you and say "there there" and pay for what you need. 

[QVCkitty1]

I know many teachers and they tell me that a big problem is the parents. Often the parents don't back up the teacher or school when it comes to discipline.