Student discipline at Kennedy begins with relationship building. Our
teachers seek to know their students academically, socially and
emotionally and connect with them as they grow and change in these
areas. Our core values of respect, responsibility, results serve as our
common contract for how we will treat one another in the building.
At times, the contract may be broken as students interact with others or
deal with all of the forces at play on an adolescent during this time
of tremendous growth and change. If students behave in ways that do not
align with our core values, we strive to support that student as he/she
realizes the error of his/her actions and give fair, appropriate
consequences for those actions.
In 2003, in a safety survey given to all of our student body,
students told us that they would feel safer and happier in the building
if:
- we could ensure that all students were treated in the same manner regarding behavior;
- that all adults in the building held the same standards for dealing with misbehavior.
Finally, they told us that they wanted to know what would happen to
students who misbehaved. In short, they wanted to know that the adults
in the building had followed through and given consequences for
misbehavior. They said that if we did these things, they would be more likely to trust us and to report potentially dangerous behavior to us. Subsequent years' safety surveys have indicated that students are reporting issues to adults more reliably and frequently.
The tool created in
response to student requests and ideas about safety is the school-wide
behavior rubric. Expectations and consequences are clearly laid out and
evenly enforced across the building. This tool, created
collaboratively by students, teachers, and then reviewed by families, is
a community document. It is reviewed yearly for effectiveness and
fairness.
The rubric is only one part of the discipline system; without
relationship building, our cores values, and rewarding positive
behaviors across the building, the rubric becomes less effective. We
constantly seek to use the rubric in the context of the other components
of our discipline program.
Behavior/Technology Rubric