S.T.A.R. is tough support

Scott Teague
The Union-Recorder

MILLEDGEVILLE January 26, 2007 03:21 am

— Oak Hill Middle School’s most disruptive students aren’t always sent to the Youth Development Center, nor are they always suspended or expelled from school.
Sometimes, their punishment is tougher and much more instructive — they’re sent to the S.T.A.R. program.
In it’s ninth year, the S.T.A.R. program has continued to provide its students with strict discipline through physical training and mandatory study hall to promote academic success, said Gene Trammell, Baldwin County schools superintendent.
“It has improved discipline. It has improved academics. About the only complaints we ever get are from parents who don’t want to have to get up and get their kids up,” Trammell said.
Beginning at 5:30 a.m., students do physical training for one hour. Push-ups, sit-ups, running laps — all is fair game for S.T.A.R. students, said Ira Jackson, the program’s
coordinator.
“P.T., I try to make it fun. P.T. is supposed to be enjoyable,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe how many kids come back to me and say, ‘Sir, I lost so many pounds.’ [The kids] look forward to doing it.”
But, if the student misbehaves during the school day or doesn’t complete his or her assigned work, P.T. can become much less
enjoyable.
Students are given a sheet that teachers fill out daily, reporting on their behavior and homework during the class periods. The sheet is then given to S.T.A.R. officers to evaluate what help students need during study hall and, when necessary, what disciplinary actions officers need to take during the next morning’s physical training.
“I tell them, if the mind slips, the body is going to pay for it,” Jackson said.
The physical discipline for the students includes anything from push-ups to squatting in a sitting position and holding that position for a period of time, a position Jackson calls the “captain’s chair.”
“It only takes a few minutes of that to get the child’s attention,” he said.
Parents are kept informed of their child’s progress. Students take the daily sheets home and have their parents sign off and turn them in the next day to S.T.A.R. officers.
“I’ve had a lot of parents who have had a child in the program, for maybe just one day, and they would even ask to put [their child] on the sheet, because they seem to think that the sheet is the best thing since sliced bread,” Jackson said. “I guess the child sees that somebody’s watching what they’re doing.”
Students whose disciplinary violations warrant suspension or, sometimes, detention at a juvenile facility, can be referred to the S.T.A.R. program. The program disciplines students while allowing them to continue the education they would otherwise miss during their suspension or detention.
“Everybody sees it as nothing but boot camp, but that’s got nothing to do [with the program] other than the P.T. part,” Trammell said.
Students attend mandatory study hall every day from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. and can get help with their homework during that time.
“People see the P.T. in the morning and think it’s one of those things where the kids are always out of class with me all day, but, in actuality, we begin at 5:30 in the morning and end at 6 in the evening, but 10 hours out of that day, they’re in the classroom sitting,” Jackson said.
Students whose disciplinary violations would ordinarily require a one-to-three-day suspension are placed in the S.T.A.R. I program, Jackson said.
They spend one day with S.T.A.R. officers, attending physical training and mandatory study hall.
Those students whose violations would warrant a five-to-10-day suspension or expulsion are sent to S.T.A.R. II, lasting 30 school days.
Days can be added onto a student’s term in the program if the officers deem it necessary to make up for days when the student slacked off or misbehaved, Jackson said.
Students who are referred to the program by the juvenile court in lieu of detention at a youth development center enter the S.T.A.R. III program for 24 weeks, or six months. Often, these students are referred to the program because it is their first criminal offense, he said.
As many as 25 students can be enrolled in S.T.A.R. at any one time. Currently, 22 students are enrolled.
Trammell recalled one of the program’s first students, a young boy, who, he said, was determined to show Jackson and the other S.T.A.R. officers that no one was going to cut his hair. He was wrong.

For the full story, see the Jan. 26 edition of The Union-Recorder

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