[senco-forum] downward spiral in school behaviour, primary

I can see a worrying downward spiral......any ideas you wise people

> I can see a worrying downward spiral......any ideas you wise people
> at there?

Unfortunately one closely related problem, as I see it, is that adults
(many of them parents?) are being treated so leniently by the criminal
justice system. For given our prisons are full to bursting, it seems
"Great Britain PLC" is now operating a policy of "99% tolerance"
towards day-to-day 'petty(?)' crime and almost all anti-social
behaviour.

For example; one on my physically closest neighbours -- he lives in
the flat above mine! -- has blighted the block of flats in which I
live for over two years now. He's been intimidating and stealing from
my neighbours as well as causing a great amount of grief for the local
Police, retailers and the general community of our small town. Well
just a few days ago, having finally been caught with sufficient hard
evidence against him, he pleaded guilty to stealing a bicycle from my
downstairs neighbour's flat and £20 from another neighbour close by.
His sentence?

...a measly conditional discharge!

Now this guy is out thieving every single day. OK, so he's addicted to
smack. But on the days he 'acquires' more money than usual he simply
ups his twice-daily dose of heroine and splashes out on cocaine,
amphetamines, skunk -- any drug he can get his hands on. The Police
are doing their very best to support us. But everyone in our
neighbourhood, including all the local school-kids, are well aware he
simply gets away with over 99% of his criminal activity ...and on the
rare occasions he does end up in court all he has to endure is the
minor inconvenience of having to turn up.

Unfortunately some of my neighbours are not adverse to buying stolen
booze and other goods from him at knockdown prices. Furthermore they
have no hesitation in sending their kids (as young as nine or ten) up
to his flat to go collect these goods from him and give him the money
they've agreed to pay.

Now recently I've got drawn in to helping turn around the lives of
some borderline delinquent young people, but so far with very little
success given "crime really does pay" and there are almost never any
real serious consequences even when they get caught red-handed.

Most of the school kids I come across around here are very street-wise
and are well aware of the appealingly easy and highly rewarding lives
(from a material standpoint) their slightly older peers and some of
their own parents are living, financed by engaging in petty crime and
intimidation.

Well off the top of my head I've just come up with a radical idea.
However do please accept I've not thought this through so I'm not even
sure whether I'd subscribe to this myself:

These days you can't get a decent job without a clean Police and
Criminal Records check. Well how making it standard practice for
regular schools to check the background of the parents of students who
are persistently in trouble. Anything untoward would count towards
grounds for permanent exclusion.

As for what to do with these persistent trouble-making students when
they are excluded, well perhaps what's needed are specialist
facilities that are a cross between a jail and a school. In other
words kids that are excluded are required to report to these units
where they are locked in until at least one hour beyond the end of the
normal school day, by which time almost all of their peers will be
long gone. Certainly there would be no more days of enjoyment with a
play-station.

OK, so this idea is simply a starting point for discussion. Certainly
it's NOT a prescription for how I propose this situation should be
handled.

Incidentally, perhaps the misdemeanours of the most persistent student
troublemakers should also be recorded against their parents Police and
Criminal records?

Hopefully I won't get to much flack for suggesting this -- I say this
because I fear I might be edging towards becoming overly reactionary
in my old age. So I stress this is not something I advocate myself,
not without first thoroughly working through all the possible
real-world consequences  ...like for example how this might adversely
affect students whose BESD are but symptoms of a yet to be diagnosed
treatable mental health problem.

David Bowles