In a back room on the first floor of the Richmond County Board of Education building, court is in session almost every week.
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The witness stand is a wooden chair, and the defense attorneys are usually mothers, fathers, aunts or uncles.
The jury, a panel of three retired educators, hear all types of cases of implicated students: the high school couple who got caught having sex in the bathroom, the middle schooler who brought a knife to class, the boys who threw punches in the hallway.
The Richmond County school system’s tribunal process has been used to determine punishments for code of conduct violators for decades.
The number of tribunals held each year has steadily decreased since 2009, but school attorney Pete Fletcher said the types of cases have evolved as well.
“Most cases now have to do with a total lack of respect for other students, themselves and teachers,” Fletcher said. “It used to be a lot of alcohol cases or marijuana, but the last three or four years it’s a lot of lack of respect.”
The panel has heard 267 cases this school year, compared with 306 heard by this time last year and 346 heard by Feb. 13, 2010.
Fletcher said the decrease could be attributed to the intervention programs set up in schools and work with at-risk students.
Bert Thomas, one of about 15 retired educators on rotation for the panel, said the process is comparable to a real courtroom.
A school safety officer or administrator presents the case against the student and calls witnesses. The student’s defense has the right to cross-examine witnesses, bring in their own and present evidence.
The three tribunal panelists deliberate in private and take into account a student’s grades and attendance record when delivering a sentence, said Thomas, a former Richmond County principal, counselor and teacher.
Many sentences result in time at the Tubman Education Center Alternative Program, which Thomas said helps some students get back on track but still doesn’t reach others at risk.
“When we’re dealing with students at such large schools, some just get lost,” he said.
Students can hire attorneys for representation, but Fletcher said he rarely sees families go that far.
In most cases, the guilt is not disputed; rather, the student’s side is speaking up for a fair punishment.
“We do find children not guilty, but that’s not often,” Thomas said.
All students are entitled to a tribunal, which takes place no more than 10 days after a violation, but families can waive their right to the hearing to have the principal determine a punishment.
Students have the right to appeal to the local board of education, but few take that route. Last year, 22 out of the 490 total cases were appealed to the Richmond County school board and one continued to the state board, which denied the appeal.
Fletcher said the process is in place to keep schools focused on education instead of distractions, even though the public might not always perceive it that way.
“We try to explain the purpose of this is to discipline a child, not to ruin an academic career,” he said.
Attorney Pete Fletcher forgot to mention that he helped dumb down discipline in the schools for which he receives over a half of a million dollars each year in fees. The weak disciplinary policies have greatly contributed to the current problems continuing to occur within the schools and that hardly anyone is ever really put out of school, even for violent or felony acts.
Put real discipline back into the schools, and for those who are not present to learn...remove them.
Asitisinaug,
When will our Richmond County friends get enough of Fletcher's greed, indolence and effeteness? After all the decent, caring parents of all races with two quarters to rub together enroll their kids in private and electronic schools?
By the way, how much of the $608K in legal fees Pete charged to the RCBOE in FY11 is attributable to this kangaroo court?
Why do we even have a tribunals when you are paying principals 6 figures to make decision! Put the discipline back in the schools and allow principals to do their job.
Principals do need more authority to handle discipline rather than going by the book for every case.
Involve the parents. Hold the students AND parents accountable.
This story only tells half of the truth. I have attempted to represent parents and students on many issues including the kangroo court the school board call a tribunal. The school board policy says they can hire an attorney that they must pay for. The Federal law mandates this differently.
104.36 Procedural safeguards.
A recipient that operates a public elementary or secondary education program or activity shall establish and implement, with respect to actions regarding the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of persons who, because of handicap, need or are believed to need special instruction or related services, a system of procedural safeguards that includes notice, an opportunity for the parents or guardian of the person to examine relevant records, an impartial hearing with opportunity for participation by the person's parents or guardian and representation by counsel, and a review procedure. Compliance with the procedural safeguards of section 615 of the Education of the Handicapped Act is one means of meeting this requirement.
This insert comes directly from the Federal Register. It pertains to disabilitied students. All the students I have tried to assist meet the 504 requirements and are disabled under federal law the recieved less consideration. Behavioral contracts would be set down in intervention meetings and in each and every case the principals and teachers failed miserably to hold up thier responsibilites that were agreed to. Intervention does no good when the school system fail in thier own responsibilities. When the parents of the children involved in this farce went to schoolboard officials they were only ignored. At one point Mr.Fletcher even denied me to represent the students and parents. Because I am not an attorney. The federal definiation or councel si any representive the parents shouls choose not just a attorney. Clearly the the board of education has taken the liberty to rewrite constitutional law.
My last student going to tribunal mother had a heart attack and we ask for a continuance Mr. Fletchers office at first refused my request stating the request must come from the parent so she call from her hospital bed and Fletchers office said they would grant the continuance
and send her the new date. Fletcher held the tribunal anyway with out the parent, student, or represenative and expelled the student for the remainder of the year.
Parents should be hearing and deciding case outcomes not retired educators who are clearly prejudiced by thier former jobs.
RCBOE and Mr. Fletcher have clearly taken the fate of your children away from you just a little dictatorship full of graft and corruption.
A protest has been organized for Feb. 21 from 4:00 to 8:00 infornt of the downtown school board office we invite students and parents to join in.
(A)vidreader,
Fletcher is paid a princely sum each year(608K taxpayer dollars in FY11) by the RCBOE. Have his efforts freed RCSS schools from rampant disrespect and disorder? Are RCSS schools more teaching- and learning-friendly than they were almost forty years ago when he became RCBOE attorney?
Fletcher's legal efforts over the last four decades haven't made RCSS students more respectful and orderly or RCSS schools more teaching- and learning-friendly. Isn't it about time that the RCBOE retained an attorney with the intellect, courage and industry to help it lead a real clean-up of the failing public school system that it is constitutionally-mandated to operate?
What happened to the (A)vidreader comment to which I responded earlier? (A)r wanted specific examples of things PF and his firm could do to improve RCSS. Might I suggest that PF, LH and LF persuade the RCBOE to give its principals and teachers the authority to discipline misbehaving kids and to provide these professional employees backing for their disciplinary decisions. Don't know about you but I find abhorrent a student's telling his/her teacher or principal, "You can't do anything to me." Even more abhorrent is the realization that the student is right.
Craig Spinks I agree with you teachers and principles need to make such decisions and involve the parents of the children as well. How ever they must be fair and just in thier actions , children are individuals and must be delt with as such. The decisions need to be made with the welfare of all parties involved. Many parents would be more active with such a process. As it stands now the parents are treated as bystanders rather than parents. Most of the parents I have worked with were very active in the intervention process but the teachers failed in keeping thier end of the bargain. This discouraged them greatly. We need to get more principals who take action to make sure the teacher and school employees are also responsible, and keep the good ones we already have. We do not need tribunals we need to take the wasted funds spent on them and improve on issues that really matter.
Give our schools back to active concerned parents and our quality staff and those who do not meet the benchmarks required should be replaced. Taking the responsibility of disiplin away from the staff who know the children best has produced an impersonal enviorment, how can teachers nurture educational and personal growth without it. We need to rember respect is not just given it must be earned to have any real value.
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