Due Process

Guess what? Due Process is all about fairness.
Remember how I ask you to teach your children to be fair?
Well here are the reasons why, in my view, being fair is entirely more
important than merely identifying incidents of unfairness...

(Please click the flag and glance over the site at the link
and then hit the 'back' button to return to this page.)

OK so now that you have reviewed your rights as a U.S. citizen,
how does this apply to your child in the public school system?
I'm sure that there are many ways (and I'm hoping fellow educators will
write in and help me round out this page),
but what gave me the idea for discussing due process
was a situation similar to the following:

PRINCIPAL*: Do you have a minute?

TEACHER*: (THINKING--well I was trying to figure out how to review
                      cum [pronounced 'Kyoom', short for cumulative--get your
                      mind out of the gutter!!!] files, grade these papers,
                      record them, and get to the faculty meeting on time... [pronounced 'Kyoom', short for cumulative--get your
                      mind out of the gutter!!!] files, grade these papers,
                      record them, and get to the faculty meeting on time...)

                       Sure, what's up?

PRINCIPAL: I just got off of the phone with someone's mother, who is irate
                        because you smacked her child with a rolled up newspaper.
                        She claims you hit all of the children on a regular basis with
                        with everything except for baseball bats. She is concerned that
                        some poor soul will develop a split personality and bring guns to
                        school because of what you do.

TEACHER: ???! (speechless and agape)

PRINCIPAL: All right then, time for our faculty meeting, see you there.

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent

In some way, shape, or form, this happens on a regular basis.
It could be prevented in the future if you teach your children that except for very serious circumstances, when leveling an accusation against someone, we should be prepared to face those whom we accuse.
As a parent, your job in a situation such as the one described above would be to set up a meeting between yourself, your child, the administrator, and the person whom you are accusing in order to get to the facts surrounding the circumstances of the incident.

It is not your job to render an anonymous accusation, which is unfair.
Yeah.
It's unfair.
I, too can recognize when something is unfair.
But ya know, I am just as entitled to face my accusor as you are to face yours...

I've taught long enough to know that fairness is difficult to apply, well, fairly.
As a parent you are faced with a fraction of the number of children that we face as teachers.
As much as you would like us to be--and as much as we would like to be, we cannot always be fair.

We have to keep careful records not only of grades and behavior, but also of contact with parents, guardians, and other agencies that may be involved in your child's life.
All of this documentation serves as Due Process for you if we have to discipline
your child, refer him for special services, or hold her back to repeat a grade.
Essentially, we cannot do our job as teachers without keeping you
apprised of what your child is doing at school.

NOTE: I have intentionally left out discussion of the responsibility of the principal to stand behind his faculty and ensure that situations between parents, students and teachers be handled with Due Process in mind. Go to http://www.dilbert.com for a humorous look at relationships between administrators and subordinates. Yeah Dilbert addresses the corporate world, but
that stuff can be generalized to the educational environment.