Almost every morning, one unlucky student gets called out for a dress code violation. That chosen student is sent to the discipline office and is forced to change into something either brought from home or found in the discipline office. After that, the student is sent off to first period wearing an old pair of jeans, an extra large pair of Grady Football sweatpants, or maybe an old Grady sweatshirt that stops just past the student’s knees.
On almost every single morning a student gets called arbitrarily out for a dress code violation, a different student–a student whose attire is every bit as worthy of a violation–passes by Mr. Howard undetected. This inconsistency between punishments is an archetype of Grady’s discipline system “at work.”
According to the APS’ Student Guidebook & Handbook for the 2013-2014 school year, the consequence for a student’s first dress code violation is an explanation of the violation and the rest of the day spent in ISS. For a second violation, students will be given ISS for three days; for a third violation, students will be given ISS for five day; after the 10th violation, students will be given up to nine days of ISS and may be sent to Student Disciplinary Tribunal. In reality, when I think about the people I know who have been given a dress code violation, none of them have ever received ISS because of it.
The discrepancies between the handbook and the punishments given out to Grady students are not limited to dress code violations. Level One Offenses, which include public displays of affection, failure to do classwork, skipping classes, cheating and unexcused tardies, require ISS after the fourth violation. In theory, this would mean Grady administrators would not have the power to hand out ISS to students who have only been late once or twice during this school year or hand out ISS to students who get caught skipping. In reality, Grady administrators threaten ISS any morning they feel like it, and they give out ISS the first time a student is caught skipping class.
By just skimming through the student handbook or getting sent to the discipline office, one can learn that Grady obviously does have rules. If a person wanted to learn more about the specifics of these rules, however, the task becomes much harder. In fact, the only place where a student can learn what could be deemed punishable is through the handbook, a booklet that encompasses every query about rules in the entirety of Atlanta Public Schools. This booklet is handed to each and every one of APS’ 55,000 students. The books dictates the rules for kindergartners just as does for twelfth-graders. And, it would seem, Grady administrators only use this rulebook as justification for the punishments they give out.
The rules set forth in the handbook are not bad rules; however, if Grady administrators want to deem certain offenses as offenses that require larger consequences than the handbook deems fit they must be consistent in their punishments and create an additional set of rules that each and every Grady student must follow. Although it would be unfortunate to be called to the discipline office every time you had a dress code violation, at least you would actually know everyday that your skirt will still be too short.
