"Educational Climate", Who is Responsible?

School Districts contend with many challenging, frequently unusual, questions that seemingly have nothing to do with education, but fall under a category sometimes called the "Educational Climate". Should that really be considered the realm of educators. Sometimes yes and sometimes no.

Consider this example. A few years ago a high school in western Pennsylvania learned that a male sophomore had been passing around nude pictures of his freshman sister to friends. The pictures were confiscated by the assistant principal and the young man was suspended.

The board of education was called into emergency session that evening to decide how the school should respond. The implicit questions on the members minds were: What should be done with the brother and why did he do such a thing? Then there was the matter of the sister. How was she to be shielded from the humiliation and embarrassment?

The ensuing discussion became increasingly strident and interventionist. They were leaning in the direction of transferring the sister to another high school in another school district. As far as the brother was concerned it was obvious to virtually everyone that he needed to see a psychiatrist.

One female member of the board who had been silent up to then finally spoke up. You know, I've been listening carefully to our discussion and to the steps we are considering taking and, you know what? It sounds to me that this incident has made us nervous, even scared. It may be influencing us to over respond. Were we to act on that fear what message would we be sending to the other students? That there is something scarey about this incident. What he did was stupid not scarey. He was showing off to his friends. So what. A mild punishment would suffice. As far as his sister is concerned she, together with her parents should have some say in this matter. Lets discuss it with them.

She swayed the board to her way of seeing the matter. The girl and her parents decided to continue as if nothing happened. A few months later everyone had largely forgotten about the whole thing.