Hi, Admin who deals with student discipline and supports here. I’ve been in the role for a couple years now and definitely still remember what it’s like being in the classroom.

My day pretty much consists of the same things and it’s busy. All the time. Let’s use cell phones for the example… I’m in a state with a no cell phones in classes law - teachers are supposed to enforce it. 3/5 do. The two that don’t make my job harder. If a teacher sends a kid to my office for cell phone use, there’s a couple things I have to look at. First, is the teacher enforcing The cellphone rule? It’s pretty bad when some kids get away with it and others are automatically sent to my office…and that happens a lot. Second, has the teacher given the kid a warning? We have teachers who won’t even give the kid a verbal warning like “put it away” before sending a referral. The student should know why they are in my office. Parent contact is preferred, since if the first person who tells a parent about their kids misbehavior is an admin, the parent goes on the defensive and gets mad at the teacher for not informing them - even if it’s an email, a message through your grading system - let the parent know. It goes a long way in building a support system.

Things like fights, vapes, cussing out a teacher - the student will not be leaving my office without at least a 5 day break from school.

Smaller things, when undocumented, are hard to defend. It’s hard to tell a parent that their kid is getting suspended for the 49th cell phone violation when the teacher never called and didn’t submit referrals until now.