DATE: Friday, October 31, 1997              TAG: 9710310650

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  102 lines

TROUBLE COMES EARLIER FOR NORFOLK STUDENTS

A 15-year-old Norview High School student got into a fight last month, was charged with assault, and was suspended indefinitely from school.

The ninth-grader will be out of school at least until he goes to court at the end of November.

The boy said he isn't a problem child and doesn't have a quick temper. His last major infraction was a fight in elementary school, for which he was suspended.

But he said his trouble, like the troubles of many of his peers, could have been avoided if adults had intervened earlier.

``This kid just kept calling me `nigger,' and saying other things. I told the teacher, but he told me if I disrupted his class again he would put me out. He wouldn't listen,'' the boy said Thursday.

``I'd like to tell people to listen, listen, listen to what we have to say. When someone is causing a problem in class, do something about it, know what I'm saying?''

The boy's comments were supported by discipline figures recently released by Norfolk Public Schools. While discipline violations overall were down, there was an increase in incidents involving elementary- and middle-school students. It's a problem that educators say requires early intervention, or it will follow the students to higher grades.

Among elementary-school students, 2,206 incidents of harassment, such as hitting, were reported last year, up from 2,135 the previous year.

Discipline and maintaining school order have been priorities of the district for years. Last week, the School Board gave security guards the authority to use handcuffs when individuals become too violent. The school system began tracking discipline problems about 10 years ago after parents and residents raised concerns that students were unruly and schools weren't keeping them in line.

Through the system called School Management and Resource Team, or SMART, officials can now tell where the greatest discipline problems occur, who the culprits are, and when they are most likely to occur.

The data is used to help students and allocate resources. For example, officials know that 7 percent of students create 87 percent of discipline problems. Officials can monitor and target certain students.

They've also opened the Alternatives to Violent Behavior Program to elementary-age students. The program, which offers counseling and self-esteem lessons through The Barry Robinson Center, was originally designed for middle-school and high-school students.

``As we saw the number of offenses being committed by younger students rise, it was logical to redirect our resources,'' said Jim Davis, director of prevention services at the center. ``No doubt about it, they are getting younger.''

Educators, parents, students and counselors offer a spectrum of reasons why young students get into trouble.

They range from poor parenting to violence, poverty and drug abuse. They even reach into the entertainment world, where kids are fed images of other children demeaning adults, talking back and acting with authority.

``Children are born into family situations that are stressed. . . . As soon as they hit that structured setting of school, that difficult behavior is manifested,'' Davis said. ``As the number of these children increases, they go to school, they are exposed to other children who are stressed.''

Veteran teachers agree that a shift of cultural and societal influences has greatly impacted the classroom. Along with violence and poverty, many students are raised to defy and question authority. Although they don't condone spanking, many educators argue that students lost a ``fear'' of teachers after the state banned corporal punishment in 1989.

While some teachers see room for deliberation, others feel their power has eroded. Many shy away from discipling students, or even touching them, for fear they could be charged with assault.

``There's such a push for students' individual rights, it has obliterated the sense of authority,'' said Marian Flickinger, president of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers. ``We let too much go.''

Parent Karen Roads agrees that students often go too far - including her son. Two years ago, her 9-year-old son received a conduct notice after he told his teacher to ``beam back up to the mothership!'' He got the line from a cereal commercial and said it to his teacher after she told him to quiet down and finish his classwork.

Roads said she was upset and embarrassed.

``These were things you would never see or hear children do when I was a child,'' 36-year-old Roads said. ``Laugh at an adult? Tell them to `Get out of my face'? Please, I would never have thought of talking back to an adult when I was a child.''

Peggy Robertson is principal at Larrymore, one of the city's largest elementary schools.

Traditionally, she said, discipline measures have been aimed at middle and high schools, but elementary school principals are the first to contend with future high-school dropouts or middle-school problem children.

``Insubordination, refusing reasonable requests, beginnings of larger problems,'' Robertson said. ``You can see those early on.''

She said many of the district's preventative measures, such as SMART, student conflict mediators, and random property searches are bringing some successes across the system - law violations for high school students have dropped 25 percent over the past two years, and drug searches conducted last year came up empty.

But Robertson said educators need to do even more, such as instituting more alternative programs for young students, to stem discipline problems early on.

``We need to be more proactive,'' Robertson said.

``Teach children to respect authority and learn to modify their own behavior.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Lawrence Jackson/The Virginian-Pilot

Peggy Robertson... and Linda O'Konek... KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOLS DISCIPLINE

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