NCJ Number
96226
Date Published
1984
Length
259 pages
Annotation
This testimony before the Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice pertains to the scope and severity of crime and violence in the Nation's schools and current and proposed initiatives to combat such crime, most notably the plan submitted to President Reagan by the Cabinet Council Working Group on School Violence and Discipline.
Abstract
The president of the American Federation of Teachers testified that some combination of security and legal remedies together with in-school management and educational approaches will be required to improve discipline in the schools. The Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the U.S. Department of Justice, addressed the relationship between the issues of discipline and crime in the schools and the larger issue of juvenile delinquency and crime in society. In his testimony, Gary L. Bauer of the Department of Education outlined a series of actions to address the school discipline problem. Congressional representative Patrick Williams identified the need for Senate colleagues to consider two categories of violence not fully explored by the hearings: attacks on teachers by students and unprovoked teacher attacks on students. Peter F. Flynn, superintendent of the Scranton, Pa., school district, proposed community linkages, a revision of mandatory attendance laws for education, and the development of alternative education programs as solutions for serious student misbehavior. Constance E. Clayton and Floretta McKenzie, superintendents of Philadelphia, Pa., and Washington, D.C., school districts, respectively, described their efforts to achieve a balance between educational initiatives and discipline. Witnesses' prepared statements and opening and additional statements are appended.