Introducing a School Discipline Code (From Crime at School: Proceedings of a Seminar Held 2-4 June 1987 in Canberra, P 43-60, 1987, Dennis Challinger, ed. -- See NCJ-110911)

• NCJ Number: 110915
• Author(s): K Sutherland
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology; National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: For microfiche, see NCJ-110911.

Annotation

This paper describes the evolution and content of the school discipline code at Belconnen High School (Hawker, Australian Capital Territory), a code with clear behavioral guidelines that require students to accept responsibility for their behavior while encouraging student self-respect and care for others and the school.

Abstract

A school community conference held in August 1984 recommended that written, uniformly-imposed expectations and actions would be developed for Belconnen High. Students, parents, teachers, and school administrators cooperated in developing the code. The cornerstone of the code is the list of rights and responsibilities from which expectations for behavior and logical behavioral consequences derive. Expectations are specified for students' behavior in the classroom and in and around the school. Consequences for breaches, offenses, and misdeeds are included in the code. Management of disruptive behavior in the classroom is based on Glasser's 10-step approach to discipline, which features the 'time-out' procedure, which removes the misbehaving student from the classroom for periods of behavioral modification through a succession of steps that include instruction in student responsibilities, problemsolving, counseling, and suspension as a last resort. A 'time-out' room may be used to isolate the student for personal study and contemplation. The code is administered by the school guidance committee.