1997 WEAC Legislative Agenda Item: Improving School Safety, Discipline and
Classroom Control
BACKGROUND:
The Wisconsin Education Association Council is committed to the belief
that all children in Wisconsin have a right to learn in a safe and productive
classroom. To support that belief, WEAC has developed a legislative
proposal which will provide for greater teacher authority in dealing
with disruption and inappropriate classroom behavior by students in
the public school system. Teachers, students and the general public
agree that the presence of disruptive students in the classroom is an
infringement on the rights of students who are not disruptive. This
legislation will protect the rights of those students who are being
deprived of a productive learning environment because of excessive demands
made on teacher time, energy and attention by disruptive students.
KEY COMPONENTS OF SCHOOL SAFETY/DISCIPLINE CLASSROOM CONTROL LEGISLATION:
- A teacher may dismiss from his or her classroom an unruly, uncooperative,
dangerous or disruptive student, providing that the teacher informs
the administration and the parent/guardian. The student shall be sent
to a school detention center where it shall be the parents responsibility
to pick up the student and take him or her home. A teacher shall have
the sole and exclusive authority to impose this suspension. The decision
to suspend shall be made after appropriate warnings have been initiated.
- Employers shall be required to provide no more than one half day
of unpaid leave time for a parent to pick up a child who has been
removed from a class. Such unpaid leave may be deducted from vacation
leave, personal leave or other appropriate leave categories.
- School boards may adopt policies, programs and procedures for students
removed from classes under this section which substitute for sending
the student home.
- A teacher may dismiss a student from any class in which there are
10 or more unexcused absences. A teacher shall have the sole and exclusive
authority to impose this suspension.
- A student may appeal a decision of a teacher to impose any of the
above actions to a school student discipline committee composed of
teachers that is also created under this law. The student discipline
committee shall meet and render a judgment within 48 hours of notification
of an appeal. No student may be readmitted to class until such time
as the appeal decision is rendered. The decision of the student discipline
committee shall be final and binding.
- No student may be readmitted to a class without the expressed and
written consent of the teacher. No student shall be admitted to a
class before a mandatory teacher-parent conference. During this conference,
a teacher shall review for the parent or guardian and the student
the standards of behavior expected in his or her classroom environment.
- No teacher shall be required to make up work for any student suspended
from school, removed from a class for disciplinary action, or expelled
from school. A student may secure tutoring, at his or her own expense,
to make up work missed for disciplinary infractions.
- Any student found with any type of weapon, drugs or paraphernalia
shall be immediately expelled from school, and the student's parents
shall be charged, arrested or fined appropriately. Any student arrested
and convicted of weapons or drug charges shall be ineligible to return
to school for one calendar year from the date of conviction.
- Schools are encouraged to involve parents, faculty and administration
in developing rules of conduct, dress and behavior appropriate for
a school setting.
- Nothing in this proposal shall amend, repeal, abrogate, nullify
or alter any provisions which now exist in collective bargaining agreements
between school boards and certified representatives of school employees.
- School boards shall make appropriate provisions for students removed
from classes whose parents or guardians do not come to pick up their
child. These provisions may involve law enforcement agencies, county
health and social services agencies and other appropriate entities
in the community.
- School boards shall be encouraged to initiate alternative programs
for those students who can not function in a normal classroom environment.
Following is a summary of a proposed bill that WEAC will seek to have
introduced in 1997
An Act to create 118.16(4)(am), 118.60 and 118.65 relating
to: enhancing teachers' disciplinary authority over disruptive
and absent pupils in the public schools, and expelling pupils from the
public schools who possess a weapon, a controlled substance or drug
paraphernalia or who are convicted of specific crimes.
Analysis
This bill authorizes teachers in public schools to cause to be removed
from his or her classroom any pupil who is uncooperative, disruptive
or dangerous. The pupil can return to class after the parent meets with
the teacher and the teacher consents to the return in writing. The bill
also authorizes teachers in public schools to expel from their classroom
for the rest of the school year pupils who have had at least 10 cumulative
absences from the teacher's class which are not excused under the school
board's attendance policy. The teacher's decision can be appealed by
the pupil to a pupil disciplinary committee whose decision upholding
or overturning the decision shall be final. Employers are required to
provide up to 4 hours of unpaid leave time per school year for the purpose
of picking up a child from school who has been removed or expelled from
class.
The bill also requires school district officials to expel from school
for the rest of the school year any pupil who possesses a weapon, a
controlled substance or drug paraphernalia while on school property
or while at a school-sponsored event, and further requires school officials
to notify the appropriate law enforcement officials of the pupil's infraction.
Finally, the bill requires school officials to expel from school any
pupil who is convicted of a crime pursuant to subchs. IV and VI of ch.
161 and ss. 940.02(2), 940.08, 940.09(1g), 940.24, 941.20 - 941.298,
948.55, 948.60, 948.605, and 948.61, and prohibits the pupil's return
to school until no earlier than 12 months from the date of conviction.
Fiscal estimates are available from the WEAC Government Relations Divison.
Written May 1996; Posted July 18, 1996
