Students Rights and Responsibilities
INTRODUCTION
Among the many issues in education currently is the topic of students’ rights and responsibilities. The Washington State Administrative Code outlines several of the students’ rights and responsibilities ranging the topics of academics, behavior and many different procedures. I find this topic particularly interesting in light of several student discipline issues I have encountered and the way I have observed them being dealt with at school. I hope to gain clarity and insight in my research to be able to better serve my students and empower them if and when it becomes necessary.
SUMMARY
I compiled most of my research straight from the Washington State Administrative Code as the information provided on the internet comes as biased as the different news channels and political parties. Also, since Washington is where I am teaching now, I thought this information to be the most relevant in my current professional growth. Many other states also provide similarly detailed policies and information for their students and teachers through similar outlets.
To summarize some of the main students rights on the topics of academics, behaviors and procedures I have created a bullet point list to keep track of them all.
- Suspensions have limitations for length of time served and there is a due process for the students to go through in each case.
- Students can be excluded from their learning environment if they are creating too much of a disruption for the rest of the students to learn.
- The rights for religious expression in schoolwork are extensive and well protected in favor of the student.
- Attendance (or lack thereof and limited to non disciplinary situations) can be allowed to affect the grade of a student in many situations.
- Students who attend “common,” also known as public, schools must follow the rules outline by the schools and submit to the authority of the teachers at the school.
- Students need to have rules about staying on the school grounds during the day.
- The school reserves most rights in the case of locker and personal searches of a student. Students do not have much privacy in the case of school property and they don’t need to be given any notice in the case of searches of their school effects.
- Gang activity is an offense that students can be suspended for if they are participating in related activities while on school grounds.
- Students are subject to a broad spectrum of disciplinary actions that are minimally outlined by the school districts but also by the classroom teachers. Any actions that fall outside the realm of acceptable school behavior may result in disciplinary action. Also, any behavior that is threatening towards another student or teacher will result in the offender being removed from where the people offended are currently attending therefore creating less disruption for them.
- A student who reports harassment, bullying or intimidation is protected against retaliation from the aggressor or the school district.
RELEVANCY
I find that the policies outlined by the state are very informative and extremely relevant to education today. The bottom line is that the state set these guidelines to protect themselves, the schools and the students. In setting the guidelines, the state has given a lot of freedom and flexibility to the schools in their interpretation and application. The major offenses have pretty straightforward consequences which most people I don’t think would take issue with. When considering two of the main everyday situations, the students are very limited in their rights. Considering the school locker searches and the objects/possessions can be correlated with many things that could be inside the locker leads me to believe that there is very little of the students’ possessions that can be kept private at school. I think it is very important to know what the students rights and responsibilities are as a teacher because it informs you of the boundaries you should observe when dealing with students and what you can expect of them as a pupil in your classroom and school.
OPINION
Initially when I began thinking about researching the topic of students rights and responsibilities, I thought I would find a lot more information about what students are entitled to, but I found more of what students are not entitled to as far as their rights and responsibilities are concerned. I feel the advantages in the law/code outlined by the state regarding students’ rights and responsibilities clearly lie in the favor of the teacher. Viewing it through the eyes of a teacher gives it a wonderful and entitling feeling. When I look down the road to my child’s future, I don’t see it as such but it does help to be informed to help protect my child/student. Students don’t really get a lot of flexibility in the written law/code. I think it is ok that way because we as educators need a way to maintain order. Also, as minors, I don’t think it is as necessary for students to be able to express too many rights especially when they aren’t given enough responsibilities these days. Students have a skewed view of their constitutional rights and the concept of freedom and use that as free pass to say and do whatever they feel like. I think parents need to help their kids be more responsible and be more aware of how little rights their students have. In a case in the state of Connecticut, Doninger v. Niehoff, where the student’s privacy came into question even in a situation that was not occurring on the school grounds but only related to school by content, the student was the loser in the legal battle.
Students should be taught more explicitly about their rights (or lack thereof) and responsibilities (of which there are many) so that they can be more productive and responsible members of their learning communities. With all the rights given to the school as far as the students’ privacy, it would be advantageous for the students to know what they shouldn’t make public about themselves. If everyone knew what their expectations were, students and teachers alike, it would make for a much better educational system.
Note: I encountered several different legal cases such as Tinker v. Des Moines, New Jersey v. T.L.O., Vernonia School District v. Acton, Theodore v. Delaware Valley School District, Goss v. Lopez, and Commonwealth v. Cass, and I found them very enlightening. I also realize that there are a vast range of subjects that can be considered under the umbrella of students’ rights such as freedom of expression, freedom of religion, equal protection, privacy rights, sexual health and education, and discipline but they are far too many and too detailed to discuss in this paper. However, I have read through many of the different and specific policies and cases and find them to be very educative and informative to my growth as a teaching professional.
