After a slew of online threats made against Alabama schools and a school shooting in Georgia earlier this month, the Alabama Education Association (AEA) is taking the opportunity to boast of its legislative efforts in passing a teacher's bill of rights and encourage teachers to join the AEA.
In a brief trend that has since subsided, well over a dozen juveniles were arrested across the state in recent weeks for either online or in-person threats made to public schools.
Law enforcement continues to investigate the nearly innumerable threats, usually made via social media, that have placed police, school officials, students and parents on edge in recent weeks.
SEE: Over a dozen juveniles arrested in ongoing trend of making online threats against schools
The wave of school threats seemed to coincide with a school shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia, where the shooter killed four people.
AEA executive director Amy Marlowe reacted to the shooting and threats by publishing an article in the AEA's Alabama School Journal. The article called for implementing its recently passed legislation, the Alabama Teacher's Bill of Rights (ATBOR), pushing for more teachers to join the union.
"The recent headlines about students being arrested in central Alabama for making threats against their schools are enough to send a shiver down the spine of every educator," Marlowe said. "Even when these turn out to be misguided pranks, they reveal a serious underlying problem that can have deadly consequences: a lack of parental involvement."
The AEA-backed ATBOR passed the legislature earlier this year. The legislation created procedures for teachers and school staff to remove disruptive students from the classroom. It also established systems for allowing an excluded student to return to class and procedures for relocating students who persist in disruption.
"Despite how others have chosen to frame it, ATBOR is not designed to punish students," Marlowe continued. "It is not designed to let teachers pick on students. It is not intended to - and should not - generate a groundswell of litigation. What it is designed to do is provide intervention for consistently disruptive students and, in the process, require conversations that won't be comfortable for all involved." Marlowe also endorsed the AEA, intimating that educators who are not currently members would likely find little assistance if the ATBOR is not followed in their schools.
"As for those who aren't AEA members, we doubt they will benefit from ATBOR," she said. "You'll likely notice over the next few weeks that the number of representatives of other 'education associations' will dwindle to nothing. They are only there to get you signed up for 'cheap dues,' not to be there to do the hard work required the rest of the year like AEA always has and always will. The big-city union members might get to talk to a lawyer in Atlanta, and the 'professional organization' that is too good to get involved in politics might give you an 800-number but no other organization has staff in every corner of Alabama ready to respond at a moment's notice."
"None of these other cheap outfits were at the State House arguing for the passage of ATBOR and none of them have the background and resources to enforce it," Marlowe added.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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