A protest held outside Springfield Public Schools’ headquarters was assembled to raise awareness about what teachers say are troubling instances of behavior in the district’s schools.
About 50 people turned out before the Springfield Board of Education’s meeting Dec. 19 for its Stakeholders for Safe Schools rally about teacher safety and enforcement of student behavior issues. They held signs telling the district to protect teachers through stronger discipline of bad behavior.
The rally was staged by Springfield NEA, an affiliate of the Missouri National Education Association. The Springfield affiliate is the union that represents teachers for collective bargaining of salaries.
Laura Mullins, president of the organization, said that aside from the turnout, even more are interested in the matter.
“I think that there is a large group of people in the community who have experienced it firsthand with their own children, or know someone who has experienced it,” Mullins said. “They were willing to come forward and say, ‘Look, this is a real issue and you need to address it.’”
The rally stems from Mullins speaking to the board Nov. 28 about unsafe conditions for teachers. During that meeting, she talked about how teachers represented by the union have reported teachers are now asked to ignore certain infractions considered minor, and that major infractions that warrant referrals are being ignored.
Mullins’ statement on Nov. 28 also was shared to the Springfield NEA’s Facebook page. It alleged teachers are seeing a number of infractions go unpunished, including repeated bullying and threats of physical harm, flipping chairs, writing on walls, upending offices and classrooms and getting in teachers faces, pointing fingers in their faces and yelling at them.
The district is in the first year of a transition to a new framework for managing behavior. The Positive Behavioral Interventions and Strategies framework encourages the use of setting expectations and rewarding successes to prevent bad behaviors. Instead of telling a student to avoid a certain behavior, they are redirected toward an active alternative.
Mullins, in her November statement to the board, said teachers are asked to classify behavior infractions as major or minor, and that doing so lets students off the hook for their infractions. And those that are considered major, forwarded to principals for referrals, are not always disciplined.
“PBIS was never meant to replace consequences, and it wasn’t meant to lower expectations with students, but that’s what we’re doing,” Mullins said. “I’ve seen it done really well at certain sites, but it’s not going to be effective unless it has been implemented properly with training staff and resources.”
The subject of the protest drew conversation from board members Dec. 19. An item in the consent agenda for purchases included a $40,000 expenditure for Loving Guidance, Inc., a company that will provide a two-day professional development session for 19 schools covering the concept of conscious discipline.
Board member Kelly Byrne said recent comments about the issue in media coverage didn’t go far enough to relay Mullins’ concerns about PBIS appearing to replace punishments.
“I just wanted to point out that statement because I think it is valid,” Byrne said. “I don’t think our board-issued statements acknowledged that, and I think that was really the intent of what she was trying to convey.”
Board member Shurita Thomas-Tate said conscious discipline is a tactic that gives space for students who are agitated, and pointed out three principals who are familiar with it. Misty Ramsey, principal of Rountree Elementary, was asked to elaborate.
“Conscious discipline does support some therapeutic aspects. They always follow through with the consequence because that’s the teachable moment,” Ramsey said. “We also know about brain states, if we are trying to give a student a consequence when they are in their fight or flight (mode), we are not going to maneuver and get that student to a place where they can understand the impact and weight of their action.”
Byrne echoed Mullins’ concern about the need for consequences.
“I’m glad to hear that there are still consequences,” Byrne said. “I still feel it’s important to acknowledge the statement that there should be consequences.”
Near the end of the meeting, board member Judy Brunner spent a majority of her speaking time talking about discipline and how both sides — the district and teachers — should move forward.
“Students need to be held accountable for their behaviors. The tricky part is, what exactly does accountability look like?” said Brunner, a former longtime district teacher and administrator. “It depends on the specific circumstances surrounding the event. What I know from years of experience as a classroom teacher and principal is that no pancake is so flat that it doesn’t have two sides.”
Mullins said she hopes the protest encourages more conversations and opportunities to meet with district officials, in order to better protect teachers.
“I want them to process every infraction as our code of conduct is built for,” Mullins said. “We have problems, we need to document them. We can’t just be hiding them.”
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Student behavior, discipline subject of protest at SPS HQ before board meeting - Springfield Daily Citizen
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