Teachers Up Creek Without A Paddle Lawyers Butt Out Teachers Must Be Trusted.

Call in the lawyers. Johnny just yanked Petunia’s ponytail and his first-grade teacher wishes to attempt (shudder) discipline.

Did Johnny receive prior notice that he mustn’t yank ponytails? Will discipline embarrass him or hurt his self-esteem? Will the teacher’s questions violate his Fifth Amendment rights? Does the teacher discipline boys and girls in equal numbers, and if not can she submit proper documentation and justification to human rights authorities? If the teacher hauls Johnny out of the classroom for a few minutes, will that violate the poor little dear’s rights to an education and to due process of law including the right to appeal?

In Spokane schools, grown men and women recently spent hours of time and pages of legal analysis wringing their hands over these very questions.

Mr. Bogdonavich would be appalled. He was a principal in the 1950s when public schools were places of discipline, order and learning. A wooden paddle hung on his wall and he used it. If some whiny-‘90s parent and the parent’s lawyer had handed him an 11-page legal brief babbling about a paddlee’s due process rights, it is refreshing to imagine how that burly ex-Marine may have responded.

Today’s public schools don’t have paddles. They don’t have order, either. Desperate for permissible disciplinary tactics, area teachers are flocking to a new version of the old “time out chair.” Miscreants go briefly to a room where they write a description of their offense. This cuts misconduct dramatically, teachers say.

This is a civil rights violation, snivel a few parents and their lawyer. Their objections sent School District 81 scurrying to its own lawyer for advice. The result? A new set of guidelines, that teachers must follow to preclude an invasion by lawyers.

This is ridiculous. Second-guessing and overregulation are precisely the reason that nervous teachers hesitate and watch, while pint-sized rowdies trash the learning environment.

Teachers should have broad freedom to exercise discipline and strong support from the school district and parents when they do.

If teachers can’t be trusted to use their common sense and professional training, no amount of rules can set things right. And if classroom discipline becomes a matter for civil rights litigation, God help the public schools.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline: Teachers need clear limits, too

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, EDITORIAL - From both sides CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board