Fix School Discipline Toolkit for Educators | Page 25

now at Garfield High School is student academic
achievement. Our teachers and staff believe that
our students can achieve academically. We raised
our API scores 115 points in the last four years. Our
students believe in themselves and feel confident that
they can compete academically with any high school
in our district. Additionally, when I hire teachers and
administrators, it is critical that they can connect with
the students; we are staffed with great people who
care about and respect our students.
Because of all of the work we have done since 2009
engaging the parents and the community around us,
we don’t have the safety issues that we used to have
outside of the school. For instance, we don’t have a
gang problem anymore; the students don’t even dress
the part because we have made it clear to them that
Garfield HS is an institution for learning and not for
mischief. It is about making everyone accountable
for their actions. Many parents in the community
support me on this and help me monitor student
behavior and dress code.
Ruiz: In 2010-2011, there was one suspension that
was mandatory because a student brought a knife
to school. In 2011-2012, we had one mandatory
suspension that resulted from a student with a
disability grabbing a female student inappropriately.
Rubalcaba: A lot of the parent involvement started
because we got creative about engaging the parents.
Once we purchased polo shirts for them, more and
more parents volunteered to supervise. Those shirts
were about $500 total but we gained thousands
of dollars in free supervision. Presence prevents
problems. When we reached out to parents and let
them know what we were doing, they would walk
around the school and talk to kids and report things
to us.
Huerta: The parent volunteers calculated the cost of
free supervision. They provide about 7000 volunteer
hours, which is worth at least $56,000. We want to
keep our whole community healthy, I want as many
parents here as possible. I have coffee with the
parents and we brainstorm on how we can improve
our school’s climate. They understand that we value
their input and they continue to be our eyes and ears.

There are a lot of students on this campus,
what happens when two of them have a
physical altercation? Or what happens if
they bring drugs to school?
Huerta: Once in a while, there is a verbal/physical
altercation between two teenagers, but instead of
suspending them; our number one goal is keeping
both students on campus where they can receive
the support they need to get them through their
problems. Additionally, in the rare case that a
student is caught with some drugs on campus, we
immediately contact parents and refer them to a
drug counselor in our community. Our students
know that they are here to get an education, and we
aren’t going to send them home on a suspension.
They are instead going to stay in school and receive
counseling. After all, they are our students and all of
their problems are our problems; we don’t pass the
buck.
Former Dean of Students Aurora Mellado
(Mellado): Let me give you a more specific example
about the interventions that we provide that help
resolve problems and address the issues instead of
just suspending students. I am trained in conflict
resolution, so if two students get into a fight, I
separate them. I take testimony on both sides and
investigate the situation. Usually, the students come
clean about what the fight is about and usually, it’s
about Facebook or a girlfriend/boyfriend situation.
Then we come together, and I have the students talk
about what they told me. U