Districts Do Illegal Things All the Time — Don't Take Personal Responsibility for It
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses how districts often ask educators to carry out legally questionable practices, and why individuals shouldn't take personal fall for institutional decisions.
Key Takeaways
- Districts bend the rules regularly - Educators are frequently asked to implement practices that may violate law or policy
- Protect yourself - Document directives, ask for things in writing, and know when to push back
- Institutional failures aren't your fault - Don't accept personal liability for decisions made above your pay grade
Transcript
A lot of people are saying they're being told that doing something about a violent student would be illegal, that the district's hands are tied, that they're obligated to do such and such and prohibited from doing what might seem obvious.
And of course, there are lots of laws and they do vary from state to state about what can be done and what ages students can be suspended and under what conditions students can be moved and things like that.
But what you have to remember about violence laws and lawsuits and all that is that districts break the law every single day.
There's hardly any school district in the country that is 100% of the time in compliance with special ed law.
There is hardly any district that goes a year without being sued.
Bigger districts are constantly getting sued.
So this idea that we can't do X because of laws or lawsuits Really what's going on there is that you are the cheapest person to make unhappy.
If we are afraid of parents suing us, then it's easier to make you unhappy.
If we are afraid of, you know, the feds or the state giving us, you know, dinging us on some sort of compliance issue, well, it's cheaper for us to inconvenience you as the classroom teacher and put you in harm's way because we don't want to get in trouble with them.
So I think part of the equation has to be a firm boundary on the part of school educators, but principals and teachers.
I think principals really have to go to bat here.
And we have, like legally, principals still have a lot of discretion, a lot of authority.
to make decisions, but sometimes to exercise that discretion and authority, we have to stand up to people above us in the hierarchy and we have to be willing to make a problem their problem because everybody has the incentive of letting someone else handle the problem, right?
It's much easier to let the classroom teacher handle the problem of the student who is unsafe and disruptive than it is for the principal, and it's much easier for the teacher and principal to handle it than it is for the district.
And what you have to remember about legal obligations is that legal obligations are district obligations.
You as an individual classroom teacher do not have the legal obligation to provide a free and appropriate public education for every single student.
That may not be possible in your classroom for some students.
Now the district has that obligation, But you are not the district.
You are not the entire district and you're not personally responsible for fulfilling all of the district's legal requirements and obligations.
So let me know what's coming up for you.
Let me know what you think.