Principal threatens deportation - Educator steps down after singling out Latino students

[elehhhhna]

Principal threatens deportation - Educator steps down after singling out Latino students
Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 11/11/06 | Stephanie Reid, Anna Varela


A Clayton County high school principal who told a group of Hispanic students they could face deportation if they caused trouble in school has agreed to step down at least through the end of the semester.

Principal Delphia Young of Forest Park High School had found herself at the center of controversy since she called the school's Hispanic ninth- and 10th-graders to a meeting in the cafeteria earlier this month.

Students reported that Young accused some of them of being gang members responsible for recent off-campus fights and said she told them she would call police and immigration officials into the school the next time a Latino student caused a problem.

Young will be away from her job as principal at least until Dec. 21, said Charles White, a district spokesman. Assistant principal Sandra Lewis will serve as interim principal beginning Monday.

Young and district officials reached the agreement Friday, which calls for suspension time, specialized training and reassignment of duties, White said. District officials declined to provide more details on the agreement, calling it a "personnel matter."

School superintendent Barbara Pulliam described Young as a proven academic leader and a solid professional who has a stellar record.

http://www.ajc.com/print/content/printedition/2006/11/11/metprincipal1111b.html

[rodeodance]

1. threatening kids cause their parents are here (illegal or not)--is just

plain outragous.

[rubberducky]

2. That principal needs to go.

Shame, shame on her.

[Hav]

3. .

If they were born here, is that even possible?
Anyway, that is discrimination, it's ugly and unworthy of someone who works in a school.

And yeah, I bet she'll get her job back as soon as everybody has forgotten about this story.

[Lars39]

4. And for off-campus fights!

When in the heck did kids start losing their education time for what they've done out of school?
Principal needs to go.

[donco6]

5. Happens all the time.

If a kid commits a felony off campus, he's expelled. Happens all the time.

[Iris]

6. Not all the time. And not immediately.

The kid would have to be convicted of a felony to legally be kicked out of school. You can't kick a kid out of school because he's been arrested for a crime. It may happen, but it's nota given. You know - innocent until proven guilty.

[donco6]

7. Actually, yes you can.

And it does happen all the time.

[Iris]

10. Not when I was teaching.

We had many kids who were accused of committing crimes. They were never suspended.

And I doubt that legally a public school could kick someone out simply because they'd been accused of a crime.

[donco6]

11. Well, I sit on lots of explusion hearings, and I can tell you . . .

. . . that, yes, kids are suspended and expelled all the time for doing things that are not technically "crimes" which would lead to conviction, and for things that happen off campus.

For example, there was the expulsion of a kid for habitually disruptive behavior. It was not a manifestation of a disability. It disrupted the learning environment. Expelled.

Then there was the kid who got into a fight with another kid at a park down the street from the high school. During our investigation, we found out he'd been threatening kids at school and in his neighborhood. No one had filed a police report and wouldn't after the incident either, but we expelled him.

The rules for evidence for school expulsion hearings are not the same as a court. We look at the "preponderance of evidence". We can accept hearsay.

We are required to expell kids for bringing weapons onto school grounds, even if they don't threaten anyone with them. Not a "crime" by law standards, but mandatory 1 year expulsion. So far this year, we've had two knives that resulted in expulsion.

So, again, it does happen all the time.

[1monster]

8. On second thought

deleted

[Kerrytravelers]

9. BY law, at least where I taught, we are responsible for children until they are at home or

their after-school designated spot. The kids have to be picked up by a bus, a parent or someone the parent designates or they go to an after-school program, at least in K-8. We have to actually walk them to the cars, the bus and to the after-school program. It's a very controlled transition after school is let out. If I said I took over thirty minutes getting kids where they need to go, I'd probably be underestimating my time. And, if a parent/parental designee doesn't show up, I got to sit with the kid. Only once, I waited two hours with a kid. Can you imagine.



Anyway, back to the OP. I'm not surprised. Nothing that people say surprise me any more. I'm just surprised that it made the paper, is all. Apparently, racism and deportation threats are the new way of dealing with people, instead of, you know, working on whatever the issues are. But, it's such much harder and time-consuming to work with people.