As one of the few African Americans in my school and district, I am often expected to have a special influence over students of colour. Ms. Scott and I had an agreement, and I promised that I would keep it. When she had a student, particularly a minority male student, who became so disruptive in her class that she felt compelled to send him out, she could send him to me and I would address the situation.
Recently, on a day when I was rushing to complete a major assignment for the district, Ms. Scott brought a young man to my room. He was a student of mixed race and very handsome. The two female students who were helping me noticed that right away. I told Ms. Scott, “I’m sorry, not today, I don’t have time. I’m very busy.” She asked again, and I said that this work had to be done.
She whispered, “He called me a m_____-ing b_, and you know what will happen to him if I send him to the office.”
“Okay,” I said, “Let him stay.”
I turned to the student and said, “I really don’t have time to talk with you today. Can you just find something to work on?”
He asked, “Can I help?”
Startled, I thought for a moment and then explained about some work I had to do on the computer. He said, “Okay, I can do that.” And he did, and his work was as good as that of any of the students I had trained.
After he finished the work I gave him, I said, “Tell me your story.” We had been discussing this management approach in a class I was taking for my specialist’s degree in educational administration.
He told me that his younger brother had been a member of a gang and was involved in a drive-by shooting. Later, the brother had been assigned to the juvenile system and recently reassigned to an adult prison. His single mother, in despair and depression, was finding it difficult to go on. “You love your mother and your brother, don’t you?” I asked.
He nodded with tears in his eyes. “My mother loves us both, I know. It’s just that she has so little time for me now with my brother’s situation and all. She worries so about him.”
He went on to explain that when he was little, his mother attended community college to get a degree in computers. She would take him with her whenever she went to the computer lab.
“That’s where you learned about computers isn’t it?” I asked. He nodded.
We talked about his anger and outburst and how we would work with that. Before he left for the rest of his classes, I promised him that we would talk more. I later wondered why we as a school didn’t know about his situation. He was clearly a bright and capable student. I could see that anyone would want him as a student. He later told me that I was the first person he had ever talked to about his home situation.
I couldn’t help but wonder about three things. What is there about school that makes it difficult for most teachers to talk about personal matters with students? What would it be like if we had a school full of adults who would ask, “Tell me your story,” when something happened out of the ordinary and then listened? I wondered whether I would have time to have such interactions with students or to lend a hand to teachers like Ms. Scott when I became an administrator.
Discussion Questions
- Imagine that you are the building administrator. Ms. Scott has sent the student to you with a discipline referral explaining the profanity he used toward her. Your school has a zero-tolerance policy regarding profanity. The policy is clear: The consequence for profanity is a 2-day suspension. What does justice require of you?
- Does justice require that all be treated the same?
Ethical Considerations
How do you reconcile justice with empathy? What other virtues are at play in this situation? What is your responsibility to uphold policy? How will other students respond to your actions? How will the teacher respond to your action? How do your actions affect school culture?
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