Eighth Grade Girl Takes a Hit
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Subject: Eighth-grade girl takes hit from zero-tolerance policy.
Date: Thursday, January 18, 2001 6:21 PM
http://www.copleynewspapers.com/beaconnews/top/a18denise.htm
Eighth-grade girl takes hit from zero-tolerance policy.
As parents, even as community members concerned about classroom violence,
we applaud the zero-tolerance philosophy in schools regarding such issues as
weapons, drugs and fighting.
Until, that is, our kid gets the raw end of what can be a rough deal.
The day after two Aurora girls at Washington Middle School were charged in
a knife fight that sent one to the hospital with minor cuts and injured a
teacher, Barbara Giacalone called this newspaper, extremely upset about
another fight at another middle school in town.
Her eighth-grade daughter, Shaleen, whom she described as "a good kid never
in trouble before," received a three-day suspension last week after she was
involved in a fight during what the mom said was an inappropriately
supervised gym class at Jefferson Middle School.
The suspension was unfair, she said, because Shaleen was only defending
herself when a classmate attacked her during a highly competitive
kickball-type game.
She's upset, too, that the school is asking her daughter to take
responsibility for her actions - striking back instead of running away and
calling for help - yet is not acknowledging its fault in this. She said that
one of the two teachers who was supposed to be overseeing the class of
60-plus students was out of the gym making a personal phone call at the time
of the fight.
According to Shaleen's account - and that of several other students who
witnessed the incident - when she went to kick the ball, a boy she didn't
even know pushed her to the ground, then pushed her again when she tried to
get up.
Until that point, Shaleen said, she just "figured he was really
aggressive." Then, for reasons she still can't understand, the boy began
punching her in the stomach.
"That's when I told myself, 'I better stand up for myself.' So I hit him
back in the arm to push him away. I just wanted to get him off me because I
knew that I wasn't going to be able to calm him down."
Shaleen said that, in the 30 seconds it took for the incident to play out,
she didn't have time to process what she should do.
"I thought about calling out for help, but I didn't know the substitute
teacher's name." Last year, she said, when a girl walked by and slugged her
during gym, she was reprimanded for disrupting the class by yelling out.
By the time the substitute came over and picked her up, the boy was still
clawing at her legs, she said. Later that morning, Shaleen was told that,
because she fought back, she too was being suspended.
She missed more than three days of school and is no longer allowed to
participate in extracurricular activities, including show choir, which is
planning a February trip to Disney World.
Not only will her daughter be left out of the much-anticipated event,
Barbara Giacalone said, she won't get back the $250 she raised for it by
selling candy door-to-door. She's also being excluded from today's
all-school trip to Funway.
On top of that, Giacalone said, her daughter sustained a swollen eye,
bruised knee, a gouge in her ankle and a sore stomach.
"We teach our children to defend themselves when they are attacked," her
mother said. "Yet, she is being punished for doing just that. What was she
supposed to do, just lay there and be submissive and get hurt even more?"
Sandy Kuzniewski, principal at Jefferson, defends the punishment, saying
the situation was investigated and that the appropriate action was taken
based on the school's guidelines.
While she could not comment on the specifics of this incident, Kuzniewski
said the school defines very carefully, in terms the children can
understand, how they are to respond - in this case, to leave the situation
immediately and report to a teacher. It is clearly spelled out, she added,
that under no circumstances are they to fight back."
Self-defense expert Mike Neil said that might sound fine in theory, but in
reality it's another story.
Neil, who frequently holds clinics for groups that range from police
departments to mother's clubs, said, "If you can walk away from a bad
situation, then do so." But when another person, especially a male, is
attacking a female, self defense of some kind needs to be employed to avoid
injury. To imply otherwise, he said, "is only sending a bad message to our
girls."
To Neil, father of four sons, zero tolerance is nothing more than "a
shotgun rule," so black and white that the victim usually ends up getting
punished more. He also sees it as a philosophy that means "zero
responsibility" on the part of schools, which makes it easier to dispense
discipline.
Clem Mejia, Kane County regional schools superintendent, said zero
tolerance was never meant to be issued like a blanket punishment, and that
he hopes each school looks at individual cases closely before throwing that
blanket.
"Zero tolerance was started because of gangs and drugs, but has taken on a
life of its own," he said. "I think the pendulum has swung too far the other
way."
Mejia also expressed concern about the question of supervision in this
case. In a large setting, especially a co-ed gym class, it is of utmost
importance that guidelines be followed, which, according to the West Aurora
School District, is one teacher for every 40 P.E. students.
In addition to filing assault charges against the boy and requesting a
formal hearing with the West Aurora School District, Giacalone has contacted
a lawyer regarding the question of adequate supervision. She realizes the
matter will not get resolved in time to do her daughter any good, but "I'm
determined to follow through, so that other students won't have to be
victimized twice."
While zero tolerance might come across as harsh in some instances, some
officials told me it is intended to teach kids lessons that will not be
forgotten soon. In the end, they insisted, that's what really counts.
Try telling that to a good kid who now has to sit home and wonder what the
heck she did so wrong, while her friends leave for a trip to the Magic
Kingdom that she worked so hard to attain.
Sometimes what really counts just doesn't add up. Annoy a Liberal, Smile.
029.12.0.0 # 24 End.
"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary
Americans." Comrade Pres W. J. Klinton. USAToday. 11 Mar 93. Pg 2A. "You
know the one thing that's wrong with this country? Everyone gets a chance to
have their fair say." Comrade Pres W. J. Klinton. 28 May 93. The Courtyard.
City Hall, Philadelphia. "I'm not going to have some reporters pawing
through our papers. We are the President." Comrade Hillary Diane Klinton.