Student Discipline Problems Are Wreaking Havoc in Government Schools

Ideologues are encouraging students to bully and misbehave in the classroom. We’re living with the consequences.

Student discipline problems in K-12 public schools are out of control. Superintendents use the excuse that the COVID lockdowns are the cause, but the extreme behavior troubles were on the rise long before then.

In 2019, over 70 percent of teachers nationwide reported an alarming increase of behavioral problems in early grades during the previous three years. Earlier this year, a 6-year-old in Newport News brought his mother’s gun to school and shot his teacher. Recent court documents show that the boy told another teacher proudly after the shooting “I did it, I shot the b— dead.” Fortunately, the teacher lived and is now suing the school district.

The National Center for Education Statistics reports that widespread disorder in classrooms increased 64 percent from 2009 to 2019. Yet over that same period there was a decline in schools taking serious disciplinary action on offenses such as fights, illegal drugs, and possession of weapons—from 39.1 percent in 2009 to 35.4 percent in 2019.

Discipline problems have increased, yet corrective actions have decreased.

Who’s to Blame?

The unprecedented school shutdowns that parents fought against certainly put fuel on the fire, but student discipline problems had already been ignited by several other factors.

In 2014, President Obama issued a directive requiring government schools to reduce racial disparities in student discipline outcomes. If students of a certain race had a higher rate of referrals and suspensions than other students, then schools were threatened with civil rights investigations. After this directive was enacted, parents began to have safety concerns for their children at school.

The Landers family in Baltimore County reported that their children were threatened, sexually harassed, and bullied so badly that their 9-year-old son threatened suicide. The family blamed the Obama policies for going “from a policy of zero tolerance to extreme tolerance.”

Those same Obama policies also encouraged “positive behavior reinforcements” that are now embedded in most K-12 schools across the nation—even though President Trump rescinded the Obama directive in 2018. One of the main programs implemented is called Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), which instructs teachers to reward students for positive behavior rather than punish them for bad behavior.

One example of how PBIS works: A student who repeatedly hits his classmates suffers no consequences, but if he restrains himself from violence for just one day is rewarded by the teacher for not assaulting his classmates.

Meanwhile, the children who never strike their classmates will observe this interaction and wonder why the violent child is rewarded, when his rule-following classmates receive no reward.

The “lesson” is obvious: Break the rules to get a reward. While giving praise can certainly be a positive attribute, there must also be consequences to correct bad behavior.

Focus on the Family

Another factor impacting student success—parental involvement—happens in the home. Regardless of income or background, children with involved parents are more likely to earn higher grades, learn better social skills, display better behavior in the classroom, and are more likely to attend college.

Unsurprisingly, then, the breakdown of the family structure is wreaking destruction on children across the nation. The impact that an absentee father has on the life of a child is astounding: Fatherless children are more likely to drop out of school, live in poverty, and have recurring health and emotional problems.

In 1968, 85 percent of children lived in a household with two parents; in 2020 that number was just 70 percent. Perhaps the biggest concern is that in 2020, 21 percent (or 15.3 million) American children did not live with their father. Over 46 percent of black children, 24 percent of Hispanic children, and 13 percent of white children did not have a father in the home in 2020.

One U.S. demographic that seems to understand the importance of a two-parent family is Asians. Less than 8 percent of Asian children were in a home without a father and Harvard reports that “Asian American students obtain higher grades, perform better on standardized tests, and are more likely to finish high school and attend elite colleges than their peers of all other racial backgrounds, regardless of socioeconomic status.”

What’s the Solution?

Schools must get back to proper discipline practices that set firm boundaries for children.

There’s a lesson to be learned from one 2006 study, which placed preschool-age children in two different types of playgrounds: One playground with a fence as a boundary and the other with no fence. When the children were told to play in the playground without a fence, they remained huddled around their teacher, fearful of leaving her. When the same children were placed in a playground with a fence, they quickly ventured away from their teacher.

Children must have boundaries to feel safe but lax discipline practices are setting them up for failure. PBIS must be abolished and defined rules and consequences for breaking those rules must be enforced for all students.

Parents must be held accountable for the actions of their children when repeated infractions occur. If a student doesn’t respond to the discipline provided by the school, the child should either be suspended or parents should be required to pick up the child every time there is a disruption. Teachers should not be required to spend extra time correcting repetitive bad behavior because it impacts the instruction of other students and holds the rest of the class hostage to the disruptive student.

In a 2019 study, 1 in 5 teachers indicated that they had been threatened and 1 in 8 had been physically attacked. Teachers are leaving the profession because they are fearful and cannot deal with the stress of unruly and violent students.

A focus must be placed on the importance of having both a mother and father in the household. A marriage commitment will provide a child the best odds of success in life. Society also needs to place an importance back on the role of fathers and hold them accountable for raising their children.

The exodus from government schools by both students and teachers will continue until there is a major overhaul in school discipline and family structure.

Victoria Manning is the vice president of Students First VA and an elected member of the Virginia Beach School Board