sowa bridges conference workshop 10.27.14
TRANSCRIPT
SOWA Bridge conferenceMonday October 27, 2014
Working to improve public education in Washington State from cradle to career with ample, equitable, and stable funding
We spend the first year of a child’s life teaching it to walk and talk, and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There’s something wrong there.
- Neil deGrasse Tyson -
What does culture have to do with it?• Introduction: 10 minutes• Part I: What does culture have to do with
it? – small groups, 25 minutes• Report back - 10• Part II: Advocacy Role Play – small
groups, 25 minutes• Report back, 10 minutes
• Further resources and next steps, 10 minutes
Overview: School Discipline
Interviews Community conversations and presentations Actions: postcards, e-mails, petitions, testimonies, phone
calls, personal visits
Limits to suspensions and expulsions Public data collection Reengagement plans Statewide taskforce
Limits on long term suspensions
Mobilizing by LEV and many others
SB 5946
New Rules
Advocacy tips
• Notification of suspension/expulsions
• Limits on suspensions/expulsions
• Educational services• Reengagement meeting and
plan
What does culture have to do with school discipline?
• Respect• Good communication• Discipline• Rules• Expectations for
schools• Expectations for
children by gender
• Respect• Good
communication• Discipline• School rules• Expectations for
students and parents – boys vs girls
What did you learn?
• What overlap do you see (if any between the cultural messages in a family’s home vs that of schools?
• What values would you add to the list that concern student behavior and school discipline?
Role play scenarios• Role play A
• Three students are at elementary school recess, and two of them report to their teacher that the first hit them because he wanted the basketball. The parents of the first boy speak English as a second language
• Role play B• A high school student with special needs who was at recess with
another student was accused of having a cell phone, even though the other student stated that the phone was his. The principal wants to suspend the student because possession of the cell phone violates school rules, and the student with special needs shouted to his teacher that he didn’t own the phone.
Role Play debrief
• How did the role play go, and what did you learn?
• What is your current understanding of how decisions get made about whether or not to discipline students?
• How can I advocate as a parent? As a student?
There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.
- Nelson Mandela -
Resources
• Office of Education Ombudsman (OEO)
• 1-866-297-2597• www.governor.wa.gov/oeo
• Team Child: legal representation for youth 12 and up
• Seattle• www.teamchild.org
QUESTIONS?
Next steps…
• Please sign our action card• Join our coalition