“Culpae poenae par esto. (Let the punishment fit the crime.)” —Cicero, De Legibus (106 BCE)

Managing student behavior and discipline in a K-12 school neither looks nor functions like it did when the adults leading the school were students themselves. That is not to say that weapons, drugs, alcohol, and student mischief were absent from schools 30 years ago…or 50 years ago. However the types of drugs have certainly changed and more students than not, are carrying a powerful piece of technology on their person that can be a tool for unthinkable evil, and, more likely, viral school disruptions.

So what is a school administrator, particularly the principal or head of school — who is both responsible and accountable for the actions and behavior of students, faculty, and staff — to do?

During part of my assistant principal tenure, I was a member of a large administrative team at a multi-thousand student, traditional high school. I was responsible for 11th grade student management and I was walking the campus one morning with my colleague who was responsible for 10th grade student management. As we walked through the student parking lot, we passed between cars when, at the same time, we saw a large box cutter sitting in the middle of a sedan’s back seat. This was not a small box cutter, but one with a large, easy-to-grip handle, sitting in plain view inside a car located on the row closest to the structure of the building. So what did we do?

After identifying the parking permit holder, we found that particular student and…you may have already guessed some of the details. The young man, 17-y/o, had an after-school job at a large grocery store nearby and most of what he spent his time doing was unloading, opening, unpacking, and breaking down cardboard boxes. In fact, the box cutter was issued by his store and on the side that was facing the seat, the grocery store chain (of which you certainly have heard) was printed. So what did we do?

Well, I can tell you what we did not do — we did not open the student management policy manual, read and blindly apply the formulaic consequences for possessing the category of weapon within which box cutters fell (which would have involved a lengthy out-of-school suspension, at a minimum). Neither did we send the student back to class and act as if we had not seen the box cutter at all. We applied common sense, reasonable judgement, swift parental communication, and dissuasive consequences that aligned with the letter of the behavior code as well as the spirit of the behavior code. This does not sound hard does it?

In fact, it is actually quite difficult most of the time. The objective for most student management (a.k.a. school discipline) situations is to get students to exhibit less of the bad stuff and more of the good stuff. Consequences, sometimes inflexible and severe, are often warranted. There are times when a student offender needs to be expelled and arrested. There are other times when a verbal warning is sufficient. However, most situations land squarely in between these two extremes and consequences alone, even appropriate ones, are not enough. Pairing the right thing to do with the best way to do it will distinguish a top-notch assistant principal from every other person wearing that nametag.

Experience can be a great teacher. So can a veteran colleague who serves as an on-the-job mentor. So can Solutions 4 Education, Inc. We would enjoy talking with you about how to improve your approach and strategy for eliciting more of the good stuff from your student body, leading with common sense and reasonable judgement.