How to discipline students when admin provides no support
Administrators frequently require teachers to complete lengthy checklists and document behaviors during active instruction before they will accept an office referral. Because schools offer no middle-ground consequences and administrators fail to back up teachers, educators are left unable to address outright work refusal, class disruptions, or persistent cell phone use.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Stepping away from the district to find a new schoolDid this help you?
- 2Making notes in behavior trackers without issuing real consequencesDid this help you?
- 3Attempting to fill out multi-step documentation while actively teachingDid this help you?
- 4Kicking the student out of the classDid this help you?
- 5Calling security to escort the student to the officeDid this help you?
- 6Confiscating the item until the end of the day or requiring a guardian to pick it upDid this help you?
- 7Relying on state-level bans for leverageDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“It felt so backwards when all I could do was make a note in our behavior tracker of what occurred. No such thing as detention, nada, nothing. It’s only the polar opposite extremes: a quick mark on a chart, or in school suspension. No in between. Constant coddling of behaviors.”source ↗
“How do you keep kids off their cellphones? I write referrals but they do nothing and the parents never take them away”source ↗
“This is my school as well. I teach middle and there is literal 0 consequences and they make it nearly impossible for us to discipline children. They require 4 steps of documentation for small behaviors.”source ↗
“I had a student flat refuse to do anything disrupt my class and no one would help because I did not take time while I am literally teaching and document it. It is so frustrating.”source ↗
“Will not allow students to be referred to the office with so many check-listed _9_ items that teachers must due prior to referral.”source ↗
“This only works if admin is willing to back you up though. If your admin sucks, there's not much that you CAN do.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 10Fear of retaliation from admin for removing disruptive students
- 3How to set firmer consequences without losing positive discipline
- 53How to handle violent behavioral outbursts and fighting in class alone
- 11Why does my child behave at school but act out at home?
- 36How to handle biting and hitting in toddlers
- 154Why are students behaving so badly and parents refusing accountability?