Teachers Tied Down by Legal Worries Jim Bencivenga
The Chirstian Science Monitor, June 14, 2004 Jim Bencivenga, columnist for The Christian Scientist Monitor and former high school teacher remembers a time when principals were able to weild a modicum of authority over discipline issues.
Today, he writes: "...the threat of lawsuits hangs like a sword of Damocles over discipline decisions made by public school administrators and teachers. Sadly, it is a fact of life that the traditional role of educators on matters of discipline has become a shared enterprise with a school district's legal department."
Citing "Teaching Interrupted," a Public Agenda poll commissioned by Common Good, Bencivenga points out that "students are quick to remind [teachers] that they have rights or that their parents can sue."
He stresses that parents, principals and teachers must be faces of authority but this is difficult to acheive "if it becomes routine for two sets of lawyers to argue the appropriate penalty for school infractions before a distant judge."
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