Student discipline bill advances out of West Virginia Senate committee

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — Addressing student discipline concerns has yet again been made a priority in the West Virginia Legislature.

Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, - the sponsor of this bill - said she is hearing from fellow teachers that student behavior and lack of respect are some of the leading reasons teachers are leaving the profession in droves. She hopes her bill that would allow teachers to remove students showing violent, threatening or intimidating behavior and get them in behavioral intervention will help with this.

“It gives them a voice in saying that I cannot teach or do my job because this is happening," she said. "I can make that decision of whether or not this is really impeding on my other students in creating an unsafe environment. It gives them that power to do that and they really need that.”

However, Lindsey McIntosh, an attorney for Kanawha County Schools, has her concerns. She said while Kanawha County is lucky to have interventionists it is hard to meet the demand with what they have already.

“It is very difficult to retain people to address these types of behaviors in the school setting so if we’re going to be talking about having a behavioral intervention program I do have a concern about how it’s going to be funded," McIntosh said.

She was also concerned about the definitions that a teacher and an administrator could have on what intimidating behavior would be.

There is also concern about what would happen if an intervention program doesn’t exist. Counties can use neighboring interventionists but students will be sent home until an assessment is done and until alternative learning accommodations are made.

“It shouldn’t take weeks but it takes weeks because they’re allowed to take weeks," Grady said. "This would require you have to get it back like this because we really need to see if we need to get that kid back in school.”

Previous state studies on suspensions show minority, homeless and foster children as well as students with disabilities are the groups most often sent home.

Christy Black, who advocates for the disabilities council, said she was worried about students with disabilities but is encouraged by the provision that adds Child Find -- the system of recognizing disabilities in children and moving them to special education.

“Schools have to seek and look for students that may have a disability and often times students that have behaviors may have a disability that maybe you can’t see, so it’s important to do those evaluations and it’s important to do those next steps in a functional behavioral analysis," she said.

Grady said the bill is not meant for disruptive or talkative students but the ones who pose a safety risk.

After hearing from McIntosh, one senator asked to set the bill aside for another meeting to rework the language, but no one else on the committee agreed and the bill passed.

“I don’t want this to be construed as something saying administrators aren’t doing their job because that’s not it but what it does it allows those teachers who feel like they’ve constantly gone to their administrator for help help help and nothing’s being done about it," Grady said. "This gives them that power to say you know what? This is really impeding on this. I need this problem removed.”