Seven Weeks Until Summer Break
20 04 2008This has been a challenging week. The main point has been vandalism of two our our five iBook laptops. It has caused our teachers to simply turn them off and lock up what we have left and just tell the students no laptops until the person that damaged the laptops is identified.
Sure, that punishes the students that are trying to learn and follow the rules. But, when you have one unscrupulous “student” that can destroy 40% of your laptops by breaking the LCD monitors and “no one sees a thing”, and you have no budget to replace or repair them- what else are you going to do. If the perpetrator of these destruction of school property can get away with it, that person will continue to act out. It is like any serial killer/criminal. They habitually break the law. It is a sickness. A mental illness.
I will just be so darn happy when the next seven weeks are over. Call it survival mode. Call it burn-out. Call it what you want, but it is real. It is never ending. Teaching in an alternative school is wearing on my core. I do not want to sound completely disgruntled- but, it is not fun any more.
I wonder how schools with each students with their own laptop handle butt wholes that crack those $400 plus LCD monitors. In the past two years, we have had three broken with only 6 laptops. That is a 50% rate. We may have made a terrible mistake in spending our textbook money on laptops. The iBooks we have been using are four years old and need to be upgraded. Here is the real but- but, if alternative school students are actually becoming more aggressive and angry, would textbooks be more durable?
This question is important to me. With a major portion of our student population now adopting the gang culture’s motto of “snitches get stitches”, the honest bystander fears retaliation from passive aggressive and violent acts of thugs. Even if they witness the LCD getting cracked by a student throwing a metal nut at it, the bully can keep them from reporting what they saw. I am frankly sick of it.
My recommendations to prevent this from happening next school year: If laptops are to continue to be available in our alternative school.
- Students that are assigned to our alternative school need to pay a fee for laptop insurance. This money need to paid before they are allowed to touch or even go into the area laptops are in use.
- Parents and students must agree to pay for any and all damages to assigned laptops not covered by insurance. Example
- Keep laptops in only one classroom. The door to that room must be locked if no one is in the classroom.
- Laptops Left in Unsupervised Areas
Under no circumstances may laptops be left in unsupervised areas. Unsupervised areas include the school grounds and campus, the cafeteria, locker rooms, library, unlocked classrooms, dressing rooms and hallways, and any place outside of school. Any computer left in these areas is in danger of being stolen. The student and parent are responsible if a laptop is stolen.
Unsupervised laptops will be confiscated by staff and taken to the office. Disciplinary action may be taken for leaving a laptop in an unsupervised location
- Laptops Left in Unsupervised Areas
- Arrange the room so all monitors are visible at all times- in a U shape.
- Install close circuit security cameras with web monitoring so the principal can view the classroom at all times.
- “Call it the No Child Left Unsurveilled Act.
On Thursday, federal lawmakers will hold a hearing on a proposal to let public schools use millions in federal grants to blanket the halls of learning with surveillance cameras.
Those grants have typically been used to install metal detectors, lights and locks, as well as paying for security training for students and employees.
The bill adds closed circuit surveillance cameras to the list of items eligible for Justice Department Safe School grants, ups the funding to from $30 million annually to $50 million and increases the feds share of any outlays to 80%, up from the current 50-50 split.” Source: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/lawmakers-propo.html
- “Call it the No Child Left Unsurveilled Act.
- Install additional security- LoJack in each laptop. ($49 per year)
- Metal detector: install a walk through model at all three entrances. The front door, our side door, and the door going into our ReDirect building. MSRP - $4,495.00 each.
Tags : , aggressive, alternative school, laptops, No Child Left Unsurveilled Act, security cameras in schools, vandalism
Categories : Editorial, Educational Technology, Teaching
