For all teachers of Junior High students who've been sent to the principal's office: Why were they sent?

Question

I recently spoke with a woman who works in the Principal's office of a junior high school. Her impression of the kids she sees there is that they're "incorrigible" and "impossible". She felt sorry for the parents. I'd like to hear from teachers who've felt it necessary to send kids to the principal. What do you see as the problem with kids today? What do you see as the problem with the school system? Why do you send kids to the principal instead of dealing with them on your own? What would you like to see more of from kids, parents and school administrators? What changes do you see as necessary to alleviate the problems in school? Do you think it's possible for junior high kids and adults to get along? Please answer as honestly and in as much detail as possible.

Answer 1

I don't see a question for parents on here, so I'll answer on the teacher side, if that's okay.
We just moved from a really good school system to a really bad one. We are moving in a couple of months, so this one is temporary and we thought we could handle it for this short time, but it is really taking a toll on our son. He is appalled at the way that the children act toward each other and their teachers and the way that the teachers treat the children.
My son is 12 and was in middle school for 6th grade last year. The school used the "Make Your Day" program, which, at the time, we thought was a little funny.( http://www.makeyerday.com/ )
All the kids made fun of it, but of course they are kids. It lets kids know that they are responsible for their actions as well as in charge of being ready for the day. It emphasized that when you choose to make the wrong choice in the first place, you choose the consequence. So, when a child is late for class or talks back to the teacher, they "choose" step 1, which is sit facing away from the class for 5 minutes while reading the mission statement...something like "“No one has the right to interfere with the learning, safety, and well-being of others”
The children do see that even though they don't feel like they "chose" to stand in the hall (step 2), they did see that their intial choice MEANS they chose step 1 or 2...whatever.
Our friend (who was a teacher there) loved it because it really helped her to be able to teach the class and not take time out to talk to the ones who are misbehaving, rather reward the ones that are involved in the learning. The teachers and students got along well (some children ate lunch in certain teachers' classrooms) and there was a mutual respect.
We really liked it because we didn't hear a lot of "we didn't really get that far because so-and-so was acting up and the teacher had to keep talking to him..."
In our current school, the teachers and staff seem to look at every child as a potential trouble maker. My son was in an advanced program before and we had to jump all sorts of roped to get him in the right classes here (he is still not in the right math class.) The problem I see here is that the staff really looks down on the kids. They are harsh to them and unnecessarily restictive. They don't really have clear guidlines of what is and isn't allowed in the classrooms, so kids will push the line. (The football coaches ere the exception...they did a good job keeping the kids in line and the children like knowing what was expected and rose to their expectations.)
Over all, I think that the kids need to be treated with a little more dignity and respect and they should be expected to be responsible and respectful to the school staff. Although some children may be "incorrigible" and "impossible", I feel that the attitudes that the teachers have toward the children really sets the tone of the school day (my son says that at least 3 of his teacher yell at the class on a regular basis.)
I think that teachers send children to the principal because they don't have the time to teach the children who are behaving while disciplining the disruptive kids, and they shouldn't have to. If they have a clear concept of expectations and logical consequences that maintain respect and dignity, they children can rise to the level that is expected of them.

Answer 2

The bottom line for all the ones I sent to the Principal's office was that they were getting in the way of whatever I was presenting to the class for that day by being disruptive and disrespectful. I left teaching after only a few years because I had to resort to this too often and could not control the likes of these insolent rebels without resorting to the "go to the office" option. There were just too many of them and the hard work that I had put into preparing my lessons would come to naught which, while very entertaining to many of the students, was very stressful and made it impossible for me to have any peace of mind while in the teaching profession. I lost my optimism and vigor for presenting material to adolescents and teenagers. I dreaded going to "work."

To add insult to injury, the parents of such students would usually end-up backing their kids by putting the blame on me for such occurrences. One even stated that her daughter just didn't "like me," thereby making the antics of her disruptive child justifiable.

The moral of this story? Don't enter the teaching profession just because you find a particular subject matter interesting yet don't know what else to do with it besides teach at the junior high or secondary level. Go into teaching only if you love being around that age group and are effective at holding their interest with innovative and stimulating ways of presenting subject material that motivates them to learn rather than encourages and opens the door for them to "act-out," as they say now-a-days.

Answer 3

In my years of teaching middle school.... I rarely sent students to the office. On the few occassions when I did, it was for offenses that required an office visit (fighting, theft, truancy). Basically I only sent students to the office when they broke the law. I experienced very few discipline problems in my classroom and when I did, I sat dawn with the student and had a heart-to-heart talk. I learned more about the student to find out what I needed to do to help him/her be more successful in my classroom. It is heart-breaking to me when I see so many teachers with attitudes like the one expressed on a previous answer. Children are children! It does not matter where they came from, who their parents are, what they can or cannot do, how they behave, how they talk, what they value.... NONE of this matters! It is none of the teacher's business! All that matters is that you give EVERYTHING you can to help make EACH student successful. Is doing this easy... absolutely not! It is hard, very hard. But I truly believe that the success or failure of a student is ultimatley the TEACHER's responsibility! Not the student, not the parents, not the administration, not society!

Answer 4

Some Multi Media students at my school were just sent to the principal's office for taking inappropriate photos at school with school cameras and ended up suspended. We also have a non violence rule. Students who play fight at school and get caught get sent to the principal's office and get suspended. There are lots of reasons for students getting sent to the principal's office.