Is Being Anti-Violence the Same as Being Anti-Student? Not at All
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder pushes back against the conflation of opposing school violence with being anti-student or anti-special education.
Key Takeaways
- Opposing violence isn't anti-student - Wanting safe schools protects all students, including those with disabilities
- This framing silences legitimate concerns - Labeling safety advocates as anti-student shuts down necessary conversations
- Safety and inclusion aren't opposites - You can support both student rights and the right of everyone to a violence-free school
Transcript
anti-violence, anti-student.
I've received thousands of comments since I started posting the series of videos on violence in schools and how we need to not tolerate it, how we need to Take drastic action to eliminate recurring violence from our classrooms.
And of course, special education comes up frequently when we're talking about violence in schools because many students who are violent end up with IEPs at some point.
And I certainly don't want to come across as anti-IEP or anti-students who have IEPs.
I believe every student deserves a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment that they can succeed in.
Unfortunately, a lot of schools seem to have forgotten that last part, that it shouldn't just be any old placement.
It shouldn't just be any convenient placement for the district.
It has to be a placement that's actually going to work.
And the reason I'm harping on violence so much is that it is extremely apparently widespread all of a sudden.
And I think the reason it's so widespread all of a sudden is that districts are not doing their jobs in giving every student an appropriate placement.
So I think as teachers, Thousands and thousands of people are being told they have to just make this work They have to make a placement that is not going to work somehow work and what ends up happening is that the student does not have what they need to succeed and Violence is the result.
So I think especially for our students with IEPs We need to hold the line on this and we need to insist that districts do their job even if their job is ultimately write a big check to an appropriate placement and you know, that's an IEP team decision.
I don't know that for any particular student, but I know we have lots and lots of students who are not getting what they need and they deserve an environment where they can succeed.
So this idea that teachers should just have to kind of beat their heads against the wall and keep trying, even when they're getting hit, when they're having to evacuate classrooms day after day, that, you know, that they should just kind of figure it out and make it work when clearly it's not going to work without very, very different resources.
I think we've got to say something about that as,