Conduct Warnings: Now Anonymous and Straightforward
As the first semester is coming to an end, I wanted to see what people think of the new conduct system in GraceNet. Students can get an infraction for a number of different things from dress code violations to behavioral warnings and can cite a singular behavioral alert. There is not a specific number of infractions that will expel or suspend a student. It is all up to the dean on what can happen to the students
The only thing that is new about the conduct system is that teachers can give out infractions through Gracenet. Before the system was in place, teachers would have to email the dean of the student and the dean would have to put the infraction into the school system. Mr. Rufer who was the dean most involved said, “Midway through last year ideas for the system were floating around, but teachers did not want to place a new behavioral system in place in the middle of a school year.” In addition, Mr. Rufer gave a little more info on the system itself and said that, “The third dress code violation will put the student under the specific watch of the dean of the student.” In addition, the 3rd dress code or behavioral infraction will result in a detention for the student which occurs from 8-9 in the morning on days where there is no Chapel or Latin (Wednesday or Thursday).
Luke Morris, a junior, said, “The system is good because it allows you to see how many infractions you have and why you have them. Also, if you try to get them removed you can see when it happens.”
Ellie Patton, a sophomore, said, “I think it’s nice that that people are able to see what they are penalized for, I don’t like the PE system because if your sick you get an infraction. No possible way of being excused. I don’t mind it but, would like to remove the PE part.” Her issue is more with the PE side of the conduct and not the system itself where one would get an infraction for a PE class that would have been excused last year but not this year.
These are the options that teachers have for submitting an infraction:
Again, these infractions only get sent to the students if and when the respective grade dean “approves” it.
George Payne, a freshman, says, “I feel that getting an infraction is too easy and there should be some type of warning for students before they receive it, but I like that I can see what infractions I receive and why I received them.
Students do seem to have some problems with the system, but they are more behaviorally based than the conduct system itself. The issues in question are the PE system because a student is given 4 excused absences per trimester. If a student happens to be sick or excused from school, they would receive an infraction for the missed class regardless. If this were not the case, then I believe that there would be no problem with the PE system. Another thing that students have a problem with is the ease that infractions are given out with. Some students feel that teachers who give infractions out should tell the student that they will receive the infraction and why they recieved it. The biggest problem seems to be when teachers will file an infraction from across a hallway with no notice for the student. This confidentiality is done so students don’t have any strong or negative feelings towards a teacher, but I think the system would improve if teachers were limited to a number of anonymous infractions let’s say, 5 anonymous infractions and 5 public infractions per every two weeks or so.
Ms. Romney-Rosa who is an advisor and a teacher said, “I always prefer when things are in one place. My advisees are seniors and I don’t really keep track of them but, when it gets to a certain point I’ll talk to them about and it’s easy to manage when students do get infractions. In addition it’s accessible, manageable and allows for private and public notes with the auto population of names.”
Ms. Kashyap who is a new dean and teacher said, “As a dean I think it helps to formalize and bring structure to discipline to the students while allowing for transparency. As a teacher it is useful for communication with the dean. I feel that increased functionality, for example deleting certain types of infractions at the end of a quarter. At the end of a quarter it would be helpful to be able to hit reset for a certain infraction category. I have not been at other schools with a similar infraction system and I feel it is better to have one than to not.”
From the perspective of a teacher, it seems that the conduct system has been a great success with teachers being able to use the new interface with ease and file infractions with even more ease. Ms. Kashyap, who has never taught at a school with a system like this before, said it was a good improvement and would have worked well at her old school. Overall, it seems that the new conduct system has been a overwhelming success, despite the fact that some students have problems with how teachers are giving out the infractions without warning. All of the people that we interviewed liked that students were able to see what had taken place and why an infraction was given. In addition, people like that infractions are reversible.
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