My Dream School’s Student Bill of Rights

In my decade of service in public schools, I have heard many reasons and solutions to the issue of behavior management.  I do not pretend to have an answer that will solve all of these problems, but I do know that the debate has caused more than one heated disagreement between educators. Differences in classroom policies from one teacher to the next are often seen as “inconsistencies” and are blamed for a litany of issues.  If students are allowed to listen to music while they work in math, they will be defiant when asked to turn it off in English. If they are allowed to eat in first period, they will be livid when they are asked to throw their food away in second. This mentality often makes teachers blame each other for students’ resistance to classroom rules. I can see both sides of this argument, but I also do not think that it is a valuable debate to have.

I do not think that this is a problem so much of consistency, but of the seemingly arbitrary nature of rules.  For this reason, my dream school will institute a student bill of rights. This will be a list of 10 rights that, in their classroom policies, no teacher will be allowed to violate.  The list will be compiled by a joint committee with members from the student body and the staff. It will be amended at the end of each year to reflect the students’ changing concerns, but it will not be allowed to be amended during the school year.  

Teachers can make whatever policies they see fit for their classrooms as long as those policies do not violate the student bill of rights.  The bill of rights can cover everything from grading policies to gum chewing, but it must be approved by the staff members on the committee as well.  Once it has been ratified for the year, it will be displayed throughout the building, in hallways and classrooms, and it will be printed in students’ agenda books.  If a student believes their rights have been violated, they can appeal to the committee and provide documentation of the offense they allege.

This meeting of the minds will encourage students to not only understand the importance of rules, but also take ownership over the expectations to which they are held.  I am not a deciding member of the committee but some sample articles could maybe include:

• Teachers shall make rules that fall under the following categories
  • Student and staff safety
  • Academic honesty and responsibility
  • Hygiene and health
• Students shall be made aware of any assignment that is worth 20% or more of their quarter grade, as well as its expectations, a minimum of two weeks before the due date
• Students shall be granted opportunities to receive extra help a minimum of one time per week outside of normal class hours

You know, normal stuff… except kids write it and tell us what is important to them.