Fix School Discipline Toolkit for Educators | Page 26

that rules and policies are consistently and clearly
communicated to the entire school community.
We have assemblies with our small learning
communities (SLCs) where we review rules, dress
code and policies. Our school police officer presents
the laws about sexual harassment, weapons, and
drugs. We also have a lot of trainings that one of the
administrative team does with parents.

a break from school or dealing with the issues, is
preferable to losing socialization time, so why would
we give that to them to punish them?

We also offer a lot of services to deal with student
issues that arise and come onto campus, including
drugs. We don’t kick students out or send them to
another school when we see that they are struggling
with a drug problem; we try to help them.

Crunching the Numbers: In the 2007-2008

Former Social Worker Gelber Orellano: Let me
give you another example. We dealt with a little
bit of a bullying problem at the school. Instead of
suspending, we had sessions with the bullies and the
bullied to teach what bullying is, what it looks like
and why it is unacceptable.
Part of keeping suspensions at zero is making sure
you document everything that is happening with the
students and that you are completely consistent. For
instance, all adults in the school can make a referral
to our Coordination of Services Team (COST) for a
student having a problem, behavioral or otherwise.
The COST referral form is extensive and ensures
that a student gets all of the interventions and
services s/he needs. After the referral, we always
follow-up and make sure to keep open lines of
communication about everything that is happening
with the students. The COST team has a meeting
every Thursday to follow-up on all cases that have
been referred.
Huerta: Suspensions and expulsions don’t deter bad
behavior, what we’re doing does because students
don’t want to deal with all the adults who will become
involved in their lives when they step out of line. A
student who misbehaves is going to have to meet
with Ms. Mellado, Mr. Orellano, his or her parent,
maybe visit a counselor, and maybe talk to me. They
don’t want to do that.
Rubalcaba: There was a student who was behind in
his work. He then acted out in class and was rude
to a teacher. We took away his lunchtime privileges
so he had to eat in the Dean’s office and catch-up on
his school work. After one day of this, he asked to
be suspended. Clearly suspension, which is really

24 How we can fix school discipline

Ruiz: It’s a lot of work but the results – improved
climate, better student achievement, increased
community involvement – are why we are always
having meetings and collaborating.
school year, before PBIS implementation, Garfield
issued 510 suspensions and 2 expulsions. The
school’s Academic Performance Index (API) was
591. After implementing PBIS for more than 3 years,
Garfield issued one suspension and no expulsions,
and raised API to 714.

Feel free to visit or call us:
Garfield High School
5101 E. Sixth St
Los Angeles, CA 90022
O: 323.981.5500