Fed Up in Belmond, Iowa

The Good Old Days

The Belmond-Klemme School Board reacts to the teachers' frustrations after a high school student spit on a teacher recently. They were frustrated because the only punishment they could mete out to the little miscreant was a 3 day suspension. From the Belmond Independent:

"How do you tolerate behavior that is despicable?" boardmember Steve Tenold asked.

School administrators had little recourse. The student was suspended for three days and then transferred to the alternative school. Superintendent David Sextro said he took the matter to County Attorney Eric Simonson who refused to file charges. The boy has since been heard bragging about the incident, and saying how pleased he was to be in the alternative school.

"I would have dropped that kid in a heartbeat," president Jim Swenson said, and boardmember Claude Post agreed. "My reaction would have been to jack the kid, and that is one of the reasons I had to get out of teaching," Post said.

"What do we have to do to provide protection to our teachers and staff?" Tenold asked.
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Sextro pointed out that special education students can only be suspended for a total of 10 days during one school year. "When they took corporal punishment away from schools, they really hurt us," Sextro said.

"I think we want stronger discipline," Swenson commented. Post added that Frakes has done a good job restoring discipline over the past two years, but that is time to "take it to the next level."

My italics. The old feeder partied at Cow College with some cats from Belmond. I remember them because they had gone home when the tornado of 1966 hit the town, and came back with lurid stories of the damage.