It is stunning, but not an actual surprise to hear dedicated teachers tell the District 97 school board that the middle schools are unsafe. Unsafe for some students. Unsafe far too often for teachers.
This is not the first time we’ve heard this. In fact, in an engaging response to teachers who had brought some fire at the last school board meeting, Supt. Ushma Shah quoted extensively from a 5-year-old Wednesday Journal news article which reported teachers raising identical concerns.
She acknowledged a lack of progress made over those years and pledged to engage around practical solutions which are rooted in the district’s determined effort to transform how discipline is handled in our schools. Teachers we heard speak to the board are not looking for a return to widespread suspensions or other forms of punitive discipline. But they do want, need, and deserve clarity around what policies are in force, confidence that those policies will be enforced consistently, and a clear sense that they are valued by the district for the hard and good work they do.