Letter: Bad apples spoiling the bunch in schools

Sunday, March 5, 2006 | 7:16 a.m.

As a 28-year educator with the Clark County School District and the father of two children who have attended our public schools, I would like to state that the biggest immediate concern on the minds of our School Board and new leadership must be coming up with an effective plan to deal with out-of-control student behavior.

This dysfunctional faction causes problems for bus drivers, school police, counselors, deans, support staff and administrators. Not to mention the daily havoc they wreak on classroom teachers trying in vain to deliver instruction while dealing with their habitually disruptive and sometimes dangerous behavior.

Our School District leaders and policy makers have knowingly turned their backs on this problem for years in hopes that it would just go away. Without question, it has grown and the results have been disastrous.

Teachers and support staff are leaving our School District in record numbers, good students are afraid to go to school, more money and educational resources are being depleted as these non-compliant students and their parents put more demands on the schools. The entire infrastructure of our local School District is collapsing from this burden.

When is enough going to be enough? When are our elected board members and School District leadership going to draw the line and send the message to these dysfunctional students and their families that their out-of-control behaviors will not be tolerated in the Clark County School District?

Don't our good students and their hard-working families deserve better than this? If our current School Board and School District leadership is unable to handle this critical issue, then maybe it's time to get people who can. This may not be the whole solution to the problem, but it's a good start in the right direction.

Bart Boulton, Las Vegas