LCS Board Member Wants to Highlight Successful Discipline Strategies

LCS Board Member Wants to Highlight Successful Discipline Strategies

At the Monday Leon County Schools (LCS) Board Agenda Review meeting, Board member Rosanne Wood inquired about highlighting schools that have successfully implemented strategies that resulted in a decline in discipline measures like suspensions.

Ms. Wood stated that her idea is to focus on praising those schools that have used innovative strategies in addressing discipline issues.

Board member Rasmussen cautioned that the improvement in discipline should be clearly due to administrative action and not because the schools are not enforcing rules.

Board member Darryl Jones added that the approach will identify best practices that could be implemented in other schools.

Based on the direction from the Board, LCS staff will develop a plan to implement Ms. Wood’s recommendation.

Tallahassee reports recently published out-of-school suspension rates during the 2017-18 school year for Leon County middle schools and high schools.


18 Responses to "LCS Board Member Wants to Highlight Successful Discipline Strategies"

  1. If you REALLY want a decline in discipline, just do what they used to do when I went to School. Hang a Wooden Paddle by the Chalkboard and USE IT.

  2. Rosemary, nothing personal, but that social engineering agenda of yours has been pushed upon our children for years and years. It doesn’t seem to be working according to plan.

    1. Trust me, what Rosemary is talking about has never been used in Leon County. Its just a fancy name for not abusing children who may be struggling with a problem, learning difficulty, developmental delay etc. Its not social engineering, its decency and common sense. Leon County schools, including the Asst. Superintendent who now oversees mental health, has allowed and empowered horrible things to go on against children. And not just the ones you might consider bad or needing punishment. In fact the US Dept. of Ed launched an investigation just this last April because LCS staff were provoking kids in special needs classes to misbehave and then suspending them. Same thing happened over a decade ago including an investigation, but they never put an end to the practice. And they never will stop the practice unless someone comes in and makes a change.

  3. Discipline measures? There has been ONE missing for far too long, the Wooden Paddle. Start with 4th Grade thru 6th Grade next year and for the next two years after that, you add a Grade so it is 4th thru 8th Grades. Hang a Wooden Paddle on the Wall behind the Teachers Desk for ALL to see. The sight of the Paddle will curb a lot of the discipline problems. You tell the Students, if they act up in class they WILL get 1 or 2 Swats with the Paddle, IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CLASS. If they continue to act up in Class, you give them an “In School Suspension” of 1 or 2 Days where they spend the Day picking up Trash, scraping Gum off the bottom of Desks and Tables, removing Graffiti, etc. Most Kids don’t mind getting suspension if they get to sit at home all day playing Video Games.

  4. Mentors need to descend on our schools and for any struggling student for any student the wishes it should be available and in many, many cases mandatory. There are so many Role Models out there that would be willing to Mentor that could change someone’s path in life and set them on the right path.

    They just need to double down and triple down on this and have a very structured Safe mentorship program available.

    All the humanity and energy was lost when they could have been concentrating on a mentorship program rather than on the Amelia Island PR event.

  5. Mimi, I understand what you are saying. Today too many boys only have mom’s and female teachers as their role models and providers. Boys need men in their lives. They need to learn to use tools, fish, hunt, fix things and be providers. I blame many today’s Dads. Most dad’s do not know how to be a dad or a true husband. I appreciate what ladies are doing for today’s children. I do know many dad’s do care and are doing a true man’s job. But they are in the minority today.

  6. Rosemary, my friends and I had issues as kids. Three to five swats with a wooden paddle cured us. Of course, mom or dad gave us a second dose at home. My safe place was church on Wed. night and Sunday school.

    1. Alex, school was much different for you then assuming you are male. Schools today are absolute torture for boys. Trauma informed just means trying to figure out the cause to fix a problem (little Tommy can’t sit still in front of a computer for an hour so let him run around the track a few times). It means treating them better than dogs (no hitting or giving them a treat). And banishing them from school just creates mental health problems from isolation and lack of socialization. Not to mention academic failure. Common sense is needed in the new era of high stakes tests etc.

  7. Three things are badly needed in many schools. 1) trauma informed instruction . Too many students are acting out because they are triggered by what happens at school. 2) Restorative justice which seeks to restore or create relationships that help people control their own behaviors.. 3) Teachers and staff need to have a place to go to reset themselves when they begin thinking that everything is the students’ fault. And kids need a calm down place too.

    It is also true that many school policies and their implement positively reinforce the behavior that they seek to extinguish. If a kiddo knows that doing something will mean he doesn’t have to attend school, and he feels bad at school, then why would s/he he resist the impulse to do a bad thing? If you misbehave you get to attend more school would work better to extinguish volitional bad behavior.

  8. The school board would like the community to forget and never question the board about the busing debacle. Manny Joanas gets a $10,000 pay cut, now making over $80,000 without a degree while teachers make less than $40,000. This craziness of this is further highlighted by the hand selected Assistant Superintendents that make over $100,00 each and never had to apply, meaning nobody else was offered an opportunity, talk about Ruthless Rocky breaking fair labor standards and the Board not raising the issue The school board asks taxpayers to believe the unbelievable, never bring up facts, never question Ruthless Rocky Hanna.

  9. Really, the schools are in crisis and they just had one of the biggest Fiasco’s in the state and this is what they come up with?

    They are going to have a Kumbaya party for something they should already be doing and know?

    What am I missing?

  10. Ms. Wood,
    Rocky’s idea of successful discipline is when he dated a teacher as principal of Leon High he had her forcefully transfered with a financial settlement. Perhaps the successful discipline strategy you would like to discuss are the unfair labor practice lawsuits brought forth from the Hanna hit list. If you have a minute you may want to highlight the successful discipline practice the the school board took when the current Superintendent admitted he falsified information to state and federal authorities costing taxpayers $600,000.

      1. When the facts cannot be refuted name calling is next. My name Mark, no relation at all to the former Superintendent. I am for one dismayed that someone that has a a record of unethical behavior is defended by anyone.

  11. First, Board member Wood, all others Board members and Mr. Supt, tell us specifically what have y’all have done to improve student discipline. Do not give us liberal mumbo jumbo, give us real facts.

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