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New laws take effect designed to protect teachers, discipline students
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BATON ROUGE - A new school year comes with a new list of classroom rules. In a letter addressed to school system leaders, Louisiana State Superintendent Cade Brumley says he wants leaders to “recommit to assertive discipline action” in the classroom.
In the letter, Brumley laid out expectations for classroom behavior and called attention to two new laws going into effect which are designed to “improve the teaching experience - leading to stronger performance, retention, and job satisfaction.”
The first law, Act 400 authored by Rep. Joe Stagni (R-Kenner), amends the Teacher Bill of Rights to allow teachers to remove disruptive students from the classroom. If the disruption is recurring, the law requires school employees to have a conference with parents.
The second law, Act 337 from Sen. Beth Mizell (R-Franklinton), will recommend expulsion for sixth through twelfth graders who have knives and drugs. It will also recommend a student for an expulsion after their third suspension.
Both laws take effect Thursday.
Valencia Johnson is a member of the East Baton Rouge Parish Association of Educators and says she can get on board with the changes.
“Being able to remove disruptive students from the classroom is a good thing to keep the learning process going,” Johnson said. “We need to think about well after they are removed. What will we do to ensure that those children get what they need.”
Teacher and parent Storm Matthews says the changes are a sigh of relief. Matthews also served on the committee that wrote the Student Rights & Responsibilities and Discipline Policy Handbook. She says it’s clear Brumley is backing teachers with this particular issue.
“We cannot teach if the discipline is not taken care of,” Matthews said.
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