Sending a Violent Student Right Back to Class Creates a Domestic Violence Dynamic

If I could identify one thing that schools are doing right now that's causing the most problems, it would be this, this idea that a student just needs to calm down and then they're ready to get back to learning.

They're ready to go back to class without any regard for who they hurt or who they scared or what kind of horrible things they did.

especially violence.

And when it comes to violence, I think we have to be very clear about our boundaries.

We have to have boundaries in place both to create a sense of predictability and safety for the students so that they know that if they are unsafe, they cannot remain in the classroom, not just for like a minute, but they're going to be excluded for a while.

if they're unsafe, but we also need to create that sense of predictability and safety for all of the other students.

Because right now, the only predictability we're creating by sending kids right back to class when they're violent is the predictability that this is going to happen again, possibly immediately.

And if we think in terms of domestic violence, if your daughter was dating someone who attacked her and then given a second chance, did it again, would you say, yes, you should continue going out with that person.

You should continue seeing that person because they probably just needed to calm down.

That was that they probably just needed to calm down.

Or if somebody told that to your daughter, would you say, uh-uh, no way, get away from my daughter and don't give her that advice.

This is a situation that she needs to get out of.

And I think every day, teachers and other students are in what is basically, it's not domestic, it's a workplace, but they're in what's basically a domestic violence situation where they're forced to not have any boundary, not have any safety, not have any distance from someone who is repeatedly violent.

And I think it's going to be a while before we realize the full consequences that that decision has had.

And really, it comes down to this right here, sending kids back to class as soon as they are calm.

It does not matter if the student is calm and quote unquote, ready to learn.

We still need to exclude them for a while.

in order to put the boundary in place.

And this is essentially the idea of progressive discipline, that when somebody does something that's not okay, we don't flip out, we don't have zero tolerance, we don't immediately expel them, but we do have a proportional response.

And most of the time, like 99% of the time, that solves it.

And with all the kids who didn't have behavior problems before and do now, the reason they're having behavior problems now is because we're not even doing that low-level proportionate response.

Then if it happens again, we can have a more serious response.

So if last time you got suspended for a day, this time you do it again, you get suspended for three days.

Okay, so we're escalating the response as the behavior continues or escalates.

And what that does is it increases the protection for everyone else and it increases the response proportionately.

in terms of the behavior.

And if we don't do that, we cannot keep people safe.

We cannot guarantee staff safety.

We cannot guarantee student safety.

And we're creating enormous liability in our schools.

So let me know what you think.

Are students getting sent right back to class after violence?

And what should we do about that?