Part of a series: 'Live and Learn: Education in a COVID-19 World'
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PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- One of the challenges presented by online learning is how to discipline students who are misbehaving. How do teachers handle insubordination during online classes?
“There’s no playbook for this," Robert Caroselli, principal of Fox Chase Elementary in Philadelphia, says.
So Caroselli and his staff came up with a plan for just about any scenario a teacher might encounter.
“We looked at a situation where -- what do we do when kids mute themselves intentionally? What do we do if kids walk off camera intentionally? We kind of went down the gamut of what if a kid used profanity, or what if they are cyber bullying online?”
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Caroselli says the first step is to alert the parents about what’s going on. If the behavior continues, parents and the student would meet with a school counselor. And if that doesn’t work, there would be a meeting with the principal.
“We can’t necessarily hand out any type of disciplinary action, but we can say it’s going to affect their grade, and it could give them the possibility that they’re not going to get a full credit if they’re not going to participate at all.”
He says, for the younger kids, it’s mostly just honest mistakes. It's the older kids who tend to be a little more rebellious.
“But we’re also being very sympathetic. We know they’re frustrated. The teachers are frustrated. Everyone is frustrated with this.”
Problems have been few and far between at Fox Chase. Caroselli says that may not be the case at other schools, but for the most part, teachers and administrators have the same limited tools at their disposal to deal with bad behavior.
“I’m very proud of our families and our students and our teachers for the way they have been handling distance learning.”
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The coronavirus pandemic has altered life in many ways for most of us, including the way students are learning. KYW Newsradio is taking a look at the impact of COVID-19 on education with "Live and Learn: Education in a COVID-19 World."