leadership in high schools

I received a telephone call from a middle school Principal this week inquiring about the possibility of one of his 8th grade students visiting the program. He said that the student has friends that attend the BOCES program and that this is possibly why he is interested in it.  The Principal wanted to know what I thought of the idea.  Here is my thinking as discussed in the phone conversation.

1.  If the student tours the program he is likely to not want to return to the home school.  This is because he will find more kindred spirits attending in addition to his friends.

2.  Why is the district considering the tour?  The answer here is that the student is very bright, is regular ed, can do all the work but has an attendance problem.  On further quesitoning, I learn that  the student is suspected of hanging out with some anti-social characters and might be exposed to illegal drugs. 

In my opinion, this student should be referred for an out of district placement immediately because, I am confident that teachers, counselors and administration within the school district, have tried everything to show this student and the family the path of failure that is being pursued.  In addition, I believe that any student who is showing signs of marked failure in this case truancy, suspicious behavior that might be indicative of illegal drug usage, indifference to all home and school rules, is in crying out for a different approach to education and life skills training.   This student needs to be removed from the general school population because this student exhibits behaviors that will alienate him/her even more from his peers in the home school.  In my opinion, this type of student does not need a tour but an immediate referral to out of district placement.  We as educators need to try something different.  FAST.  To SAVE this student.  This student will join an 8th grade cluster within the Alt. ed program.  The cluster is currently made of two students, who receive daily mentoring and reality therapy from the full time counselor.  The level of intense supervision and daily exposure to a school wide positive behavior intervention program is crucial to the success to students within Alternative Education.  Their first cry for attention was the truancy, the negative peer group, the anti-social behavior patterns which immediately got the attention of school faculty and staff.  The sooner we intervene with this type of student the better the outcomes for graduation and that positive social-behavioral interventions will be internalized 

Kudos to the Principal and teachers in this school district for asking more questions from others in the field of education.    

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