‘Challenging’ student behavior draws concern

The first commenter, Katie Kelley, spoke on the contrasting experiences her children had from their different times at the same school, and expressed concern for the lack of communication from the district regarding the behavior reportedly being experienced in her youngest child’s classroom. “My oldest child had really great experiences at Dry Hollow Elementary starting in 2016. He wasn’t exposed to the violence and threats from classmates that my youngest child has experienced,” she said, listing examples of such behavior that included verbal threats and physical violence — such as repeated punching and slapping of classmates — and throwing items such as chairs and scissors.

“Last year I had a child in the first grade … at no time during the school year did building or district leadership communicate to parents the repetitive, violent situations that my child and his classmates were being exposed to. That is lack of transparency,” said Kelley. “I was told many times last year that additional supports were being put in place for these students … I haven’t seen any meaningful changes to mitigate the student behavior or support for our staff. The violent and threatening behaviors are getting worse this school year … we need a culture within our district from the top down that supports our staff and prioritizes the safety and educational needs of every student. The district needs transparency and leaders who will show up willing to have difficult conversations with parents and who are willing to make difficult decisions, while considering the wellbeing of all students.”

Ashely Dodson, another Dry Hollow Elementary parent, echoed similar sentiments in her own comment. “I recently participated in the parent workshop on conflict resolution that District 21 provided to families. Only seven parents in the whole entire district attended that workshop. During the presentation, education consultants … stated that restorative practices does not mean no boundaries, no expectations, and no accountability. However, when I hear of regular classroom clearings, repeated threats to teachers and peers and positive reinforcement for negative behaviors, I have concerns that there are no boundaries, there are no expectations for our children, and there is no accountability. I’m also concerned about the lack of transparency from administration, given my kindergartner is the one informing me of these things.

“The consultants gave their phone numbers as a resource, and I called them. I expressed to them that my happy and vibrant carefree child’s demeanor has completely changed. The once eager child no longer wants to go to school. She doesn’t want to talk about her day when she comes home. She’s more emotional about situations that previously would not have affected her,” Dodson said. “Her concerns about violence and classroom safety are valid. The teachers are doing their absolute best to support her, and I appreciate and respect the teachers showing up every day, but the system is failing our children and our teachers.”

Marissa Isaak spoke on the behavior that had been experienced by her kindergarten student that ultimately resulted in the withdrawal of her child from Dry Hollow. “Within the first three weeks of school, my kindergartener had been punched in the stomach, slapped and choked. He had peers using cuss words in class, and the same four students that were hitting and cussing were also being disruptive and not staying on task, taking away from his learning time,” said Isaak. “The behaviors and problems continued, and by month four my student dreaded going to school.

“The district wants to have an equitable learning environment. But like many others, what about my child’s equitable learning environment? Every mission, value and vision that the district has is currently not being met. The ideas of them are great, but it’s a mess.”

Isaak also expressed concern regarding a lack of administrative support for teachers and staff. “The teachers are not adequately being supported by administration … not only are kids being physically and emotionally assaulted, so are the teachers. The teachers are being bit, hit, jumped on, having objects thrown at them … my understanding is that the teachers just had their first in-service on restorative practices. We’re five months into school. What assessment tools are currently in place to evaluate its effectiveness? What about the trauma that is occurring at school? Who is accountable for that?”

The Oregon department of Education (ODE) uses a description of restorative practices as “a system-wide approach to cultural over-reliance on exclusionary discipline practices in schools.” According to nextgenlearning.org, “restorative practices offer schools an alternative to traditional disciplinary actions that center on punishment for misbehavior and breaking rules,” focusing on “resolving conflict, repairing harm, and healing relationships.” In the Sept. 22 school board meeting, “begin work on restorative practices” was presented as a “Year One” priority for the district’s five-year strategic plan, which was officially presented to the board at the Aug. 25 school board meeting.

Karen Wilson, a kindergarten teacher at Dry Hollow Elementary School, spoke on her personal experiences with challenging behavior in the classroom, and the current difficulties staff is reportedly experiencing with the district’s current implementations of restorative practices.

“In the seven weeks I’ve been teaching kindergarten, I’ve had to clear my room on multiple occasions, including twice in the last two days due to the conduct of two students,” Wilson said. “The roll-out and implementation of the restorative practice policy that district has embraced and begun to implement this late in the school year has been inconsistent, resulting in much confusion ... natural and logical consequences and discipline designed to deter negative undesirable student conduct and to teach and encourage pro-social behavior through accountability have been discouraged and are being abandoned.

“I am speaking tonight because I want those in a position to make policy, you the school board, to have the facts you need to make informed and reasonable decisions for the good of our students, their families and our employees,” Wilson said.

Stevie Elledge commented on similar experiences her child at Colonel Wright has dealt with this school year. “All of the behaviors that you’re hearing about tonight have also gone on in my daughter’s class. She’s been punched, bit, hit, spit on, told she was stupid. It is not isolated to Dry Hollow; it is also going on at Colonel Wright. Things have to change. Our children have to feel safe at school,” Elledge said.

“As I mentioned at the beginning of comment, we’ll sit down with Superintendent Bernal and figure out how to be able to respond and address what you brought forward tonight,” said Board Chair Jose Aparicio, who thanked the commentors for attending and speaking at the meeting, “As a parent myself of a similar age group, I can totally relate.”

“Like schools across the nation, we continue to uncover the many repercussions of COVID and the stress that the pandemic has placed on children. Unfortunately, one of these has been the uptick of challenging student behaviors,” Communications Director Stephanie Bowen said in an email to Columbia Gorge News. “For students dealing with grief, mental health issues, poverty, or other life circumstances, behavioral issues can be even more intense. While we see this across the board, students in transition years such as incoming Kindergarten students, appear to be most significantly impacted in our district.

“We understand and empathize with the parents as we collectively try to navigate these situations. Of course, safety and security is our highest priority, and we are continually looking at ways we can improve. Ultimately, however, we must provide a learning environment for all of our students, which includes students with behavioral challenges and/or other disabilities.”

According to Bowen, the district plans on soon reaching out to the commenters who spoke at the meeting to “schedule a time to dig deeper into their comments and respond to their concerns directly.”

The entire NWCSD 21 school board meeting can be found on the District 21 Media Channel on YouTube.