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Brazosport principal’s speech upsets parents
Published November 7, 2009
FREEPORT — School district officials are fielding calls from Brazosport High parents who say Principal Doug Boone’s speech on discipline and grades at a schoolwide assembly this week amounted to threats and that his examples were over the top.
However, Boone said the words were spoken out of love and concern for students.
The district has received calls about a speech Boone made to the Brazosport High School student body Thursday morning in which he told students he would suspend them if they were failing two or more classes, said Mistie Harris, the parent of a freshman.
Harris said her daughter was very upset, though she works hard to get good grades and is not currently failing two classes.
“I thought it was a bit extreme to tell them that,” Harris said.
The assembly was prompted by a series of fights and an increase in the number of kids fighting compared with last year, Brazosport ISD Deputy Superintendent Dennis McNaughten said. Boone had to institute a discipline center this year so one principal is in charge of discipline each period, enabling the other principals to get other work done, he said.
Boone admits he did threaten to suspend students for failing grades, but only so parents would have to bring their children to school to reinstate them, in effect making them become involved in their child’s education, he said.
District officials said Boone cannot suspend children for failing grades, but Boone said he has devised another way to get parents involved.
Kids with failing grades in several classes will be called into the office, where Boone and the student will call the parents to talk to them or set up a time when they can discuss academics in person, he said.
If that does not work, social workers and parent liaisons will take children home and talk to parents about becoming involved in the child’s education, McNaughten said.
“Parent involvement is essential to student success in school,” Superintendent Joe Ripple said.
Boone also talked about discipline, threatening to put students in jail for fighting, McNaughten said. Though it technically is a judge’s decision to put someone in jail, the school does ticket students, and Boone wanted students to know the possible consequences for their actions, he said.
Boone had Freeport Interim Police Chief Gus Flores, Judge Milan Miller and City Manager Jeff Pynes at the assembly to talk about the consequences of some of the students’ actions.
There are a lot of discipline issues on campus, Boone said. Insubordination and disrespect for authority are common, but lately fighting has increased, he said.
Boone was not attempting to intimidate students, but to encourage them to succeed, McNaughten said.
“Kids can’t learn if they’re fighting,” Ripple said. “It has to stop.”
Katlynn Lanham covers Brazosport ISD for The Facts. Contact her at 979-237-0150.
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