Is It Safe?

After 9/11, schools were charged with ensuring that there were safety procedures in place for intruders and other emergency situations, in addition to fire drills and disaster drills. I had suspected that these were not being taken seriously by most people. Then one day:

There was a lockdown (not a drill -- the police had called because there was a bank robbery nearby) about 15 minutes after school let out. The principal made an announcement that all students still at school waiting for rides should come back into the building and go to the media center.

Some students, on their way to the media center, were directed by teachers and the assistant principal to the auditorium instead.

One teacher took three students out of the center and to her room because they had a project to work on. The Safe Team counselor reminded her the school was on lockdown, but she said, "I’ll get in trouble tomorrow," and took them anyway.

Another teacher suggested the kids be taken to the auditorium. She was reminded that the principal had directed all students to the media center. Also, we had been told in a training workshop that moving students through halls when the danger was unknown was a mistake (the bomb or whatever could be in a locker). The teacher left and came back, saying she had been told to take kids to the auditorium.

On the way to the auditorium, students were allowed to leave the building instead. Three to four teachers, two counselors, the principal, the security guard and several parents were standing in plain sight of the primary entrance, and allowed them to leave. One student also was allowed to leave the auditorium and go to the hall bathroom by herself.

Fortunately, no harm came to the kids that day. But very few adults seemed concerned either. These are the people who will be on the news when something terrible does happen, crying and saying they couldn't believe it could really happen "here."

Memo from the Principal: Children Don't Steal

We are in a meeting with the principal, Mrs. Tipover.  I forget how, but the topic of students' telling one story and teacher's telling another comes up.  Mrs. Tipover has an anecdote:

"You have to know how to talk to kids!  I had a little sixth grade boy in my office, and a girl had accused him of stealing her book.  I said, 'Billy, did you steal Kesha's book?'  And he said no.  So I said, 'Billy, do you know where Kesha's book is?'  And he said yes.  'Where?' I asked.  He said, 'In my locker.'  He didn't even know he had stolen it!!"

Principal's Memo: The Plagiarism Crisis

Background: I had assigned a research paper to my 8th graders.  Twelve of them plagiarized, copying and pasting directly from internet sites, which I found easily.  I gave them zeros and mailed their papers home to their parents.  One girls' mom, let's call her "Mrs. Blame," wrote me a letter and 2 emails all about how I am racist and her daughter would NEVER plagiarize, and I could call her minister if I didn't believe it (number provided).  I passed these along to my principal, whom we'll call "Mrs. Tipover," who had the woman and her daughter in for a meeting.  I came into the meeting, handed the mom printouts of the several websites her daughter had stolen from, highlighted in various colors and coordinated against the daughter's paper (which I had asked her to return to me for this purpose), and asked her if maybe now we could agree that Little Lulu Blame, her daughter, did in fact plagiarize her paper.  Mrs. Tipover let me get to my classes while she and the Blames talked the incident over.  Mrs. Tipover, a former English teacher, took some time to go over with Lulu the process for how to cite your sources.  This seemed to me beside the point, as her plagiarism wasn't about not citing sources, it was about cutting and pasting, but hey, any time someone is learning something it's all good, right?

So Lulu turns in her next draft and it too is plagiarized.  I email Mrs. Tipover about this surprising turn of events, and alert her to some other incidents I think are relevant -- the art teacher got  a paper from Lulu that had parts copied from the textbook, and the Spanish teacher said she had had several cases of plagiarism in her class as well.  I said I was giving Lulu another zero, and asked her if she had any other ideas about what to do.

Her email:
"My concern -- Are we sure the students know how to do this?  I am certain they would not do it intentionally -- I am also aware that students get in a hurry and copy to meet the assignment deadline.  (Poor planning and studying on their part.)  I would recommend that these students have small group sessions with the teachers.  Allow the student to practice -- a sample article -- opportunity for the teacher to monitor and assist in a non-threatening environment."

So, to sum up my principal's response to this situation:
1. The students didn't realize they were cutting and pasting material from the internet.
2. The students have never heard of plagiarism before, even though the 6th and 7th grade teachers IN THIS BUILDING talk to them about it.
3. The assumption is that I have not taught them, despite the fact that the other 120 students I have did NOT plagiarize.
4. The solution is to take my personal time and supervise them to prevent them from doing it again.

Weeks later, when Mrs. Tipover thought I seemed upset lately and I mentioned Mrs. Blame's hurtful letters to me, she told me, "I couldn't ask her to apologize!  [I had not asked her to.]  That would be too much!"