Bibb County, GA
Michael Dorn, of Safe Havens International, has been hired by the Bibb County school system to perform an assessment of their schools. One of their most important findings was, "The underreporting of on-campus incidents requiring student discipline."
There can be many reasons for this, chief among them is the desire to not be seen as a violent school. This is denial in its most damaging form. This is akin to a homeowner not wanting to know about the roaches, or carpenter ants, as that would give their house the appearance of being pest-ridden.
There are some very important reasons to properly report discipline incidents. One, you cannot take care of a problem unless you identify it as a problem. That's the first step in any type of recovery program. Shed the denial and recognize that there is a problem.
Two, schools can place themselves in some serious liability jeopardy by not reporting discipline issues. In Indiana, we are required to file a report of all suspensions and expulsions from that school year. Improperly reporting data is fraud. Having a student report a gun, and not reporting that to the police, is a crime. Do we want our school administrators acting dishonestly to maintain the illusion of a safe school? If school administrators are saying the schools are safe, and the kids know differently, how much respect will they have for school administration? Will parents be able to trust school administrators who are fraudulent?
At what point do those who are responsible for protecting the sheep become the wolves? This is a very real possibility when we operate by dishonesty, rather than honesty; on perceived notions of safety rather than reality.
Fraud and deceit are not the Sheepdog Way.
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