State Education Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley is urging school districts to crack down on unruly student behavior this upcoming school year.
Brumley sent a letter to all district leaders, calling on them to make a commitment to stand firm on inappropriate behavior.
Brumley noted the tremendous academic progress that students have achieved since 2019, due in large part to the work of the teachers and administrators.
“Maintaining that progress requires continued vigilance,” Brumley wrote in his letter to system leaders. “Principals and teachers must set clear behavioral expectations and enforce consequences when they are not met. Encourage your administrators to stand firm against disruptive behavior, as unruly classrooms and ungovernable students are barriers to learning that dilute the academic environment for everyone.”
“I just feel like schools for too long have been too tolerant of inappropriate student behavior,” Brumley told Louisiana Radio Network in a subsequent interview. “Schools need to be orderly. They need to be peaceful. And from the state level, working with our governor and legislature and state board, we put in policies and procedures to make that happen.”
Brumley says students who habitually disrupt classroom learning can be dealt with under state law.
“Laws and policies are now in place at the state level so that the students can be removed from the classroom and not allowed back in until parent conversations have been
had, (and) students who are suspended from school for three times move to an automatic expulsion,” Brumley says.
In this past legislative session, lawmakers adopted House Resolution 333, which urges school systems to comply with and enforce the state’s anti-bullying laws.
“That can come in many forms – gestures, name calling, spreading rumors, physical threats, social exclusion,” says Brumley.
Brumley says students have made such tremendous strides in the classroom in recent years, and he doesn’t want to see it undone by a select few students who act up.
“We want to make sure that that classroom and school environment is one of academic excellence and isn’t being distracted by inappropriate student behavior,” Brumley says.
