MVHS Hosts Dialogue on Discipline

A small group of parents convened in Bratten Hall at Mount Vernon High School’s Dialogue on Discipline forum last night.

Hosted by Principal Nardos King and school administrative staff, last night's community forum gave parents chance to voice their concerns about discipline at MVHS and offer feedback about the superintendent’s recommendations to the school board on student discipline process changes.

Last year, there were 69,430 infractions committed by students countywide according to Fairfax County Public Schools. At Mount Vernon, 4,000 discipline referrals were issued last year, mostly for attendance violations. Of those referrals, 375 resulted in suspensions and 27 were recommendations of expulsion, said King.

Currently, students who commit infractions go through due process. Not only do they discuss the incident with administrators, they have the option to submit a written statement before a decision is made.

One parent expressed concern for potential conflicts with students students who issue statements for minor incidents that may not be worth a suspension.

“He’s going to be told to sit down and write a statement and explain from his perspective what may or may not have happened. He may not understand or express what you’re wanting him to do, or he may write something down that is not in the best interests of him or extenuating circumstances,” said one parent.

“I don’t just go by the words, I go by the verbal conversations we have,” said King. “A statement is just a written record of their side of a story. Due process is getting students to tell their side of the story before a decision is made.”

Another parent expressed concern over the school’s 20 percent suspension rate.

“Doesn’t it alarm you that we are so skewed compared to the other areas of the county with our suspensions? It concerns me that within the school system there’s not the same kind of approach to suspension as there is in MV. It seems you suspend first and then think about other ways to improve student’s behavior later,” she said.

 “375 suspensions is alarming to us because we want to reduce that rate,” replied King. “What’s not alarming to me is comparing me to every other school in the county because I know what kind of leader I am in this building, and I have high expectations on students. We are disciplinarians, and the reasons why we are disciplinarians is because we want our students to have the best learning environment.”

Parents reviewed the list of superintendent recommendations for discipline process changes. Continuing Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports programs in FCPS schools is one of the recommendations that MVHS is ahead of. King said that the PBIS program will expand to the entire school, with trained student leaders lending support to fellow students.

King voiced her support for shortening the timeline between an incident and disposition of the decision. A student who is waiting for a disposition is often suspended for long periods of time.

 “So after the hearing they go into their expulsion hearing, and then they further suspend the kid until the disposition is made,” said King. “Sometimes it takes 10 days, sometimes it takes 20 days, sometimes kids are out of school for two months. And it’s hard because we’re still mandated to continue to give them work.  So we have a student who is now at home, who is getting work from school with no teacher and is expected to do that work, turn it in and then they get more work.”

Feedback from these meetings will be collected and submitted to Superintendent Dale, who will present the feedback to the school board at its May 20 meeting.