Students in the Hall, part 1

Hello everyone,

When I was a beginning teacher, I occasionally sent students into the hall when they were disturbing the class. I'm not sure what happened to convince me to stop doing it.

It may have been that someone warned me that I could be held responsible for what my students did in the hall.

Sometimes, you may see students out in the hall way that your neighbors have sent out there. Some of you may have sent students out to the hall. I urge you not to do it.

You are legally responsible for students who are in your class. Students that have been sent out into the hall are technically still in your class. Students out on passes from you are technically still in your class. If someone is "in your class," and you may be legally liable for them, you ought to have them be someplace that you can keep an eye on them unless you trust them very much (certainly not the ones who are misbehaving). You may send students to another class (with that teacher's permission), to the counselors, or to the deans. In those cases, the student is no longer "in your class," but is in theirs. (Keep in mind, though, that you should not impose on others without their express permission, and your willingness to do them the same favor.)

This is not something to take lightly. Over the past two decades, I personally have been a witness to a wide variety of crimes committed by kids outside class. (I include in that the crime of underage copulation and other such non-enforced crimes.) The murders I am aware of, I did not witness, and I can't say that there is a direct cause and effect relationship between a student's being murdered and a teacher's sending the student out of class; but I know that there are strong tangential relationships. Drug sales and use; violent crimes; thefts--all of these happen among our students.

Don't let them happen on your watch.

If you're in the habit of sending students out into the hall, please get out of it. If you're not in the habit, avoid it. If your kids are disruptive, let's talk about other strategies to deal with them. Don't send them into the halls unsupervised and without a pass.

Jeff Combe