Corporal Punishment allowed in USVI public schools

Doubt it seriously as all the stories I hear about parents confronting teachers for just trying to simply discpline their kids. I can't see how they can do anythng more serious!

RL

These stories pop up from time to time and there seems to be no validity to them whatsoever. There are occasional reports in the media of teachers being assaulted by either students or students' parents but the opposite gossip is, in my opinion and from my knowledge, total scuttlebut.

You would be hard pressed to find much discipline in the U.S.V.I. public schools much less corporal punishment.

David - as much as I respect the teaching profession as a whole, it's getting harder and harder for teachers to both teach and instill discipline. Discipline comes from the homefront but it seems that these days a lot of parents seem to feel that teachers of students should also be their parents in instilling basic values. I know things have changed drastically over the years since my schooldays in England.

There was never corporal punishment there - it was bad enough to be "naughty" in class and be sent to stand outside the classroom waiting for the huge invincible headmistress to walk through and find you outside and direct you forthwith to her office for a dressing down which truly hurt beyond any physical punishment...humiliation nonpareil at that time and the threat of telling one's parents about one's transgressions was simply the worst punishment of all!

Teachers of course must have discipline in their classrooms in order to be able to properly teach, but their task becomes so much more difficult when children coming from dysfunctional households "act out" in class, mouth off at their teachers and create basic chaos in the teaching environment. The good teacher of course should promptly remove the disruptive child from the class and feel safe relying on back-up from the school principal/BOE to follow through via written procedures which should encompass every scenario.

Many children who come from dysfunctional families are backed up in school disputes by their families who never attend a PTA meeting, never sign out on their children's report cards and generally never show any interest whatsoever in their child's education and then rally around - and all Hell breaks loose - when the child claims abuse.

A child claiming abuse from either parents or teachers is nothing new and unfortunately has become such a heated and over-legislated issue that the woods aren't seen for the trees and very innocent adults go through the legal mill only to be proven innocent while their names have been irrevocably tarnished.

I wonder what the Virgin Islands Board of Education has in place as far as basic teaching directives and protocol about disruptive behaviour are concerned. I'd be most interested to hear from anyone with first-hand experience,

Cheers.