A Florida sheriff is standing by his threat of much harsher penalties for student misbehavior he spoke out in front of a prison last month.
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey hosted a live press conference on November 28 and announced a swift and brutal crackdown on student behavior problems in the county’s public schools.
Claiming to have received extensive reports of dangerous and sometimes violent misbehavior by teachers, school staff and administrators, Ivey announced his intentions to reform the county’s disciplinary guidelines.
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Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey speaks at a press conference on November 28.
(Brevard County Sheriff’s Office)
“Our teachers are distracted. They can no longer do their work and spend more time dealing with [students] disrupting their class of what they’re teaching to those who actually came there to learn,” Ivey said in his original news conference.
Ivey lamented the decline in harsh punishment in public schools, noting the widespread ban on corporal punishment in particular.
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“Frankly, they’re not worried about getting in trouble. They know nothing’s going to happen to them. They know they’re not going to get after-school detention, they’re not going to be suspended,” the sheriff said. . “They’re not going to get kicked out or, like old times, have their cheeks ripped off their butt for not doing well in class.”
Ivey was joined at the press conference by State Attorney Phil Archer, Brevard Public School Board President Matt Susin, Brevard Police Major Brian Neal and School Service Workers Union representative, Dolores Varney.
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Parents and residents attended a school board meeting Dec. 8 to discuss the sheriff’s comments.
Some parents took issue with the tone and message of the video and expressed concern about the sheriff’s leadership on the issue, according to local outlet Spectrum News 13.
“In the face of cold concrete and barbed wire, our families were left without answers, without a plan,” Christine Rowe, a mother of six, told the meeting, according to the report.
Brevard County Sheriff’s Office car
(Brevard County Sheriff’s Office)
“I said what I wanted to say in that video, and with that, it was just this: You need to get to these kids before you get to me,” Ivey told Spectrum 13 during a break in the meeting. “I chose that backdrop, because if they don’t get to these kids, that’s where they end up.”
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No official plans for alterations to discipline guidelines have been formally proposed.
The sheriff’s office has not issued a public statement on the specific changes it is suggesting.
