In response to the post, “And Your Point Is,” a reader, and DAEP principal, writes:
“Amen! We want our students to be successful when they return to the home campus. We hear over and over that they are not welcomed when they go back. We believe in the saying that kids won’t care unless they know you care! Those that are successful when they return are welcomed back and encouraged to be successful. Isn’t that what it is all about?”
I know that your rhetorical finish is really an indictment. E. Don Brown preaches, “that the only person who can be a pure advocate for students is the principal. Everyone else in education, at some point in time, has a vested interest greater than the needs of kids.”
The truth of that statement becomes readily apparent when the student in question has either been delinquent or has gotten on every adult’s last nerve. At that point, the human need for revenge and to punish, easily overcomes common sense and professional duty.
Principals have to do two things. First, they have to make sure that adults follow the discipline continuum to the letter. If an adult cuts a corner or makes an error, the student has to get the benefit of the doubt. Second, the principal has to make sure that angry adults aren’t making decisions that will impact a student’s future. Even if they are the angry adult in question.
If a principal can do that, they can go a long way in protecting what I often refer to as “the last legal victim class,” the delinquent student.
Think. Work. Achieve.