Defining disruption difficult with student protests

CHILLICOTHE – When it comes to how students are permitted to express their concerns about issues at school, area superintendents say the only hard and fast rule is that the expression can not create a disruption.

What constitutes a disruption, however, often must be determined on a case-by-case basis.

The question of student protest has been brought to the forefront after the non-renewal of a teacher near the end of his first year at Southeastern High School and the subsequent suspension of a freshman student for refusing to change out of a T-shirt showing support for the teacher during the school day.

While not asked to comment specifically about the Southeastern situation, as some had not heard anything about it, area superintendents say the goal in dealing with student concerns is to uphold students' rights to free speech, but there are limits.

"Our board of education supports First Amendment rights as long as they are performed without disrupting the educational program," Zane Trace Superintendent Jerry Mowery said. "If a student protest deliberately interferes with the normal operation of a building or district, then that is where the school district will draw the line. It's important for our students to know and understand the right to protest in this country as long as it is done properly."

Zane Trace's bylaws and policies contain a section about handling of controversial issues and another section pertaining to disorder and demonstration. Neither section goes into many specifics about what is considered controversial or what constitutes a disorder, leaving those determinations up to the school administration and board.

Jon Saxton, superintendent of the Chillicothe City Schools, said he has been fortunate not to have run into any serious issues regarding student protest during his tenure with the district.

He said the district attempts to be proactive in revisiting its policies and procedures regularly in an attempt to head off any potential problems and that, if a problem does arise, officials will attempt to first get a firm understanding of the issue and then mediate it with respect to the viewpoints of all parties involved.

"When it comes to freedom of expression, students' First Amendment rights don't end at the front door," Saxton said. "But school personnel have that authority to say what's disruptive and what's not disruptive."

Saxton recalled an instance years ago when a particular type of T-shirt carrying innuendo inappropriate for the school environment became popular. The district handbook specifically addressed clothing with innuendo that could create disruption at school, empowering school officials to take action.

Huntington Superintendent Keith Stevenson, like Saxton, said he has not encountered any serious student protest issues in his four years as high school principal or the past two as the head of the district. Should a problem arise, however, he said he would encourage dialogue with students as long as the approach was peaceful and "doesn't disrupt the learning environment."

"I was just talking to one of our class advisers, and he was looking to restructure maybe some of the (student) class officers and maybe have some type of an at-large member that might be responsible to go to board meetings, maybe even teacher staff meetings," Stevenson said. "We kind of discussed that, as long as that was filtered, to some extent — we can't have people bringing up silly things — but if they have legitimate concerns, I don't think there's anybody that wouldn't listen to them."

First-year Adena Superintendent Pete Ruby said it's helpful and most productive if students follow the chain of command when they have concerns, starting with their teacher. If it needs to be addressed further, it would then go on to the principal and superintendent and then, if the item warrants it, the school board.

Getting students to understand that is part of their preparation for what will await them once their caps and gowns are put away after graduation, he said.

"When developing leaders, students need to be made aware that, in the real world, there is a chain of command and there is a proper way of doing things and we certainly want to develop that in our students," Ruby said. "For the most part, what I've seen in my first year here at Adena is our students really respect our staff, and if they have concerns, they'll voice it to them. And if it's a concern that has to go higher, it does."

Sometimes, Stevenson pointed out, the growth of social media makes the process a bit more complicated.

"Schools everywhere are dealing with Facebook issues because, obviously, anybody can go on Facebook and say anything they want," Stevenson said. "It's unfiltered, and they can state things to be fact that really are not fact, and a lot of times, we are trying to manage that now.

"Facebook has created a whole new dynamic for schools, especially with student-related issues of confrontation because they sit at home and get all this stirred up on Facebook and then they come to school and try to settle things, and that doesn't really work out well some of the time."

cbalusik@nncogannett.com

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Twitter: @chris_balusik