Well lemme ask ya rusty, if your reputation, your career, and or school record and or your criminal record were on the line, would ya want some wannabe biased kiddy principal playing investigator?
re: “Well lemme ask ya rusty, if your reputation, your career, and or school record and or your criminal record were on the line, would ya want some wannabe biased kiddy principal playing investigator?”
Look, dragnet2, the principal of a school is like the division supervisor of a department of a company/business. It’s their job to supervise their employees as well as supervise and enforce the rules of conduct of students and faculty, to observe/evaluate the strength and weaknesses of the teaching skills of each teacher and recommend help where needed.
When something happens on campus of a ordinary circumstance - i.e. fight between students, academic issues of students, behavior issues that disrupt the classroom on a regular basis (kids acting up on a regular basis, extreme disrespect, etc.).
Principals are required to be the initial investigators of all disciplinary issues on campus whether involving students or faculty or both. That’s part of the job and always has been.
They (as well as all school personnel) are required by law to report any suspected criminal activity whether its on the part of a student or a faculty member - especially on issues involving child abuse or suspected child abuse. School personnel are held liable by law, both state and federal law, for not reporting a child abuse situation or a suspected child abuse situation to police.
So, yes, dragnet2, whether we like it or not - it is the principal who initially starts asking questions of all involved in any given NORMAL school-related altercation (from a kid complaining another kid called him a name to a full on fist fight). Situations like someone bringing a weapon on campus, drugs, sexual abuse - the principal is usually the one who contacts the police department if the situation rises to that level.
The principal is the one whose job it is to make initial inquiries to find out how serious a particular event is.
If I’m understanding you correctly, it sounds like you think if a kid is sent to the office (i.e. the principal) for cussing out a teacher that the principal is supposed to call the cops for every little issue or accusation that comes up - without making initial inquiries as to what happened?? Is THAT what you are saying?
Someone has to make initial inquiries into an accusation by a student against a teacher - IF THAT ACCUSATION RISES TO THE LEVEL OF A CRIMINAL NATURE like child abuse or sexual abuse - then of course the police are called in to investigate - but even in that situation, the principal will be asked BY THE POLICE if he/she has looked into any of this to see if there is enough evidence to merit them coming in and making a formal investigation.
So, dragnet2, if you were a teacher, it is true, right now, that your reputation, your career, and school record are on the line by what a principal says about you - that’s the way it is and always has been. That’s why all teachers carry professional liability insurance in case they are accused of misconduct or criminal activity, or of academic misconduct. Lawyers have a field day with public schools.