Teachers and Principals detailed incidents of child violence and classroom disruption on Monday during an interim meeting of the Joint Committee on Education.
Kanawha County principal Stephanie Haynes told members that she was abused by a child last week for nearly 40 minutes.
“Myself, an assistant principal and another staff member are currently covered in bruises because of this child,” she said.
Haynes and other educators asked lawmakers for legislation to help them remove these students from the classroom so that teachers and students can achieve the safety needed to foster a productive learning environment. They proposed alternative learning spaces and emphasized the need for funding to hire additional staff focused on helping these children.
The educators mentioned that suspension is often not the best option because in some cases it results in sending kids back to a bad home environment. They also described an inability to take away recess as punishment due to the state’s rules on physical activity at schools.
During the 2024 Regular Session, lawmakers considered a bill that would have given elementary teachers greater authority to remove students for disruptive, aggressive or violent behaviors. It outlined steps for how schools should deal with students who needed to be removed from their classrooms. The legislation faced criticism from some that said it would result in children in need of serious mental health support being disproportionately removed from their classrooms. There was also no funding mechanism for the bill.
Lawmakers concluded the meeting by emphasizing that a school discipline bill will again be a high priority during the 2025 Regular Session.
