BY MIRIAM SMITH
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON -- A group of Warren County teachers is fighting to reclaim their power in the classroom.
The group, called Advocating Control for our Teachers (ACT), is proposing legal immunity for Ohio teachers who have to discipline or remove disruptive students.
ACT members have contacted local legislators and hope to make it a statewide issue.
Sara Oeder, chairwoman of the ACT committee and a teacher at Lebanon's Donovan Intermediate School, said they want to ensure that the best education for all kids is not disrupted by a few.
"We don't want them to interrupt the education of the masses. The majority of the children's rights are being overruled. When did the rights of one overcome the rights of many?" Mrs. Oeder said. The committee is a spinoff of a group of teachers who won the Warren County Area Progress Council's Project Excellence, which recognizes excellence in teaching.
Those teachers formed the Academy of Excellence to discuss educational issues, and the idea was formed to create ACT to address teachers' rights in the classroom.
The committee is proposing legal immunity for teachers who:
- Verbally discipline a student.
- Physically isolate a student.
- Withhold student privileges.
- Use harmless props to correct them, or temporarily or permanently ban them.
The proposal also calls for teachers to have the "absolute legal right" to refuse to accept any student with disruptive behavior, regardless of their individual education plan, and to be able to isolate a disruptive student from others.
Teachers now have the ability to do many of those things, "but they're at risk if they do," said Walt Davis, a member of the ACT committee and Lebanon City School Board.
"If a teacher makes a kid stand in the corner, in some cases they wouldn't have any problem. (But) in some cases, parents would sue them for humiliating their little darling."
The ACT committee wants legislative support for its proposal. State Sen. Richard Finan, R-Evendale, and state Rep. George Terwilleger, R-Maineville, have been contacted.
Mr. Terwilleger said Monday he thought it was a "great proposal" and he has taken some of the ACT committees ideas to the Legislative Service Commission, an entity that puts together legislation. Educators are afraid of lawsuits and "walk around on eggshells afraid, not to hurt anyone's feelings.
"What we need to be doing is protecting the learning environment at all costs," Mrs. Oeder said.
Monday night, Lebanon City Schools Superintendent Robert Harvey said the committee must move carefully in that area because of laws involving due process.
"I think they've got their work cut out for them," he said. "Any time we can strengthen things . . . in the classroom, that has to be a very positive focus."
In Lebanon -- as in most Ohio districts -- teachers have the authority to ask a student to leave the class to go to another part of the school. But only principals have the right to suspend students and superintendents to expel them after they undergo a hearing process, said Kim Hobby, assistant principal at Lebanon High School.
Mrs. Oeder said the proposal would give teachers "the final word on it."
