With Student Misbehavior Negatively Impacting Teachers, NJEA Leadership Chooses to Fight the Culture Wars, Not Protect Teachers

More reports of student misbehavior and the negative impact on teachers, with local association officers sounding the alarm.  Where is the NJEA on this issue of obvious importance to teachers?  Fighting the culture wars rather than protecting teachers.

Thanks to NJEdReport, we learned the Asbury Park Press reported that Lakewood Education Association (LEA) officers are seeing teacher morale and safety “among the lowest levels ever.”  They claim teachers are being attacked by students with no consequences.  As a result, many teachers are leaving and staff turnover is high.

The LEA president told the school board:

“Students have been fighting and even our members have been attacked by students.  There have been reports of items being thrown at staff members, spitting, kicking, punching, fighting, and the use of foul language, and students threatening teachers … with minimal to zero consequence.”

The vice president added that the district’s policy is not to suspend students, and as a result, “[m]any of our students have adopted an attitude of impunity.”

This has predictably had a negative impact on teacher morale and retention, leading to very high teacher turnover.  An astounding 20% of the district staff leave every year, according to the Department of Education.  The LEA officers claim “the mistreatment of teachers, low morale, and student behavior are the real reason for such departures.”

Lakewood is just the latest example of a disturbing, statewide trend that resulted from extended school closures during COVID.  As Tina Kelley of the Star-Ledger reported last year, post-pandemic, there have been problems statewide:

• “dramatic increase in student misbehavior;”
• “large increase in students caught with weapons in school;”
• “Incidents of all types of unruliness among students, including smoking, mouthing off to a teacher, or tripping a kid on the playground are increasingly common;”
• “We’ve had upticks in every category of disciplinary situations,” according to the Garden State Coalition of 100 (mostly suburban) school districts.

This is not the first time the NJEA has been confronted with such concerns. In 2010, due to an upsurge of misbehavior and violence in schools, the NJEA launched an extensive campaign called “Ten steps to reduce violence.” This was a full-fledged NJEA campaign that called for political-style organizing by NJEA locals because it could not be left to the school district or Department of Education.  The full resources of the NJEA were available to help:

“Make eliminating school violence a priority and commit to organizing members and allies to pressure district administration for real improvements. Enlist the assistance of the UniServ [NJEA] representative…”

The 2010 campaign shows that when the NJEA wants to address student misbehavior and teachers’ concerns about their safety, it knows how.

But now, when its members are again facing widespread student misbehavior and expressing concerns about their safety, the NJEA is silent.  Even when its local association officers are sounding the alarm.  Why?

NJEA leadership is too busy fighting the culture wars.