By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk school board recently voted 6-1 in favor of suing complacent or negligent parents who refuse to work with school officials to correct their child’s unruly behavior.

Such lawsuits are possible under a 2004 Virginia law that allows school districts to take legal action against parents who shirk their duty to ensure their children are following the standards of student conduct and attendance, writes PilotOnline.com. Such policies are already in place in several other Virginia school districts.

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“The court can order a student and parents to participate in programs including summer school, parenting or mentoring classes, and extended day programs,” PilotOnline.com reports. “A court also can order a parent to pay a civil penalty of up to $500.”

Norfolk school board members believe the policy can help correct the growing problem of student aggression toward teachers and other staff members.

“We’re becoming too accepting of substandard behavior, when a student will cuss out a teacher … and there’s no repercussions,” says Board Member Brad Robinson, according to the news site.

The local teachers union supports the new policy, of course.

It’s perfectly understandable that Norfolk school officials are concerned about disruptive and potentially dangerous student behavior, but their decision to begin suing deadbeat parents is troubling – particularly because it lends credence to the teacher unions’ argument that parents, not teachers, are to blame for faltering and ineffective schools.

That was the message a Connecticut teacher union president relayed to Gov. Dannel Malloy earlier this year, when he handed the governor a report entitled, “Elementary Students in Crisis.” The report claimed too many students are “unavailable for learning” and “out of control,” and end up negatively impacting their fellow classmates. Things are so bad that “elementary teachers feel they are in a ‘war zone,’” stated the report.

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Basically the report was an argument against the need for school reform.

A more recent example of “pin the blame on the parents” comes from Tennessee, where state lawmakers passed “parent report card” legislation that asks parents in two of the state’s struggling schools to grade their level of involvement in their child’s education. The self-evaluations are voluntary – at least for now.

The Volunteer State also passed legislation that creates voluntary contracts to encourage Tennessee parents to review homework and attend school functions and parent/teacher conferences, reports the Associated Press.

Asking parents to take a more active role in their kids’ education is a good thing, of course. But spending limited school funds to haul lousy parents in front of a judge seems less appropriate.

If Norfolk school officials are concerned about students threatening their teachers, they should use the tools already available to them, namely suspension and expulsion. Our understanding is that both disciplinary measures provide opportunities for school officials to meet with parents, and to provide them with a wake-up call.

We understand there are bad parents in every school district in America, but teacher unions and defenders of the education establishment must not be allowed to use that sad reality to divert attention from their professional shortcomings.

Let the education establishment get its own house in order – by jettisoning ineffective teachers, incompetent administrators and union-controlled school board members – before they are allowed to micromanage parents.