Alabama House passes bill establishing classroom exclusion procedures

The Alabama House of Representatives Tuesday approved legislation that would create procedures for excluding students from classrooms.

SB 157, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr,  would take effect for the 2024-25 school year. It passed the House on a 100-0 vote.

“Right now, we have a situation where we know we have disruptive students in our classrooms. It’s inhibiting our ability to get teachers in the classroom, to keep teachers, to recruit teachers. It’s impacting the learning of the other students,” said Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, who introduced the bill on the house floor.

The bill would also provide procedures for returning disruptive students to class and authorize the principal to suspend a student excluded from a class three times in a month. The bill would require boards of education to adopt policies and procedures for exclusion, and it provides certain civil and criminal immunity to teachers.

Under the bill, a student can be excluded from class for disorderly conduct; obstructing teaching or learning process of others; threatening, abusing, intimidating or attempting to intimidate education employees or students; willfully disobeying an education employee; and using abusive or profane language against an education employee.

“It basically says that principals and superintendents and school boards need to step up to the plate and come up with a solution with these children, and not just say, ‘go back into the classroom,’” Garrett said.

House members generally spoke in favor of the bill, including one Democrat who suggested teachers “have a professional butt-whooper in your school to handle discipline.”

“Y’all might not want to hear what I got to say. When we took God out of school, part of your problem arrived. When you take the paddle out of the hand of the teacher, part of your problem arrived,” said Rep. Patrick Sellers, D-Birmingham.

At an Alabama House committee meeting, a divide over a student exclusion bill

Sellers said that lawmakers can’t legislate home behavior, and suggested parents discipline their children before they go to school.

Rep. Barbara Boyd, D-Anniston, a retired teacher, said that “children are disruptive; parents are disruptive; [lawmakers] are disruptive” and asked the body to have more patience with each other.

Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, asked Garrett if there were any state reporting requirements on the number of students suspended and the reasons they were suspended.

Garrett said that there is no requirement in the bill, but he said he believed local school boards would collect data as part of developing protocols. 

Hall successfully added an amendment that would require local boards of education to compile information related to disciplinary actions and provide that data to the State Board of Education. The State Board of Education would then provide a report to the Legislature before the start of session.

“Once we receive the data, we may look at that and say we need to provide some additional resources or some assistance to them, but we will not know that if we’re not collecting the data to have a report made to us,” Hall said.

Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, said that the problems begin when teachers don’t treat students with respect.

“Now, I worked in elementary school, and there were some young teachers in there who didn’t tolerate little boys, black boys, I’m going to use the term, but the black teachers didn’t have no problem with those boys,” Jackson said.

Republicans spoke in favor of the bill. Rep. Alan Baker, R-Brewton, said that teachers have become overwhelmed with added responsibilities over the last couple decades.

“This bill, as I see it, it just simply providing them a level of security and support for these teachers in the classroom to make them feel that they are being supported,” Baker said.

Rep. Bob Fincher, R-Woodland, said that teachers are being physically assaulted and said that the classroom is “literally turning into a jungle.”

“Sometimes we forget the kids that are there to get an education, and they’re the losers in this when there are disruptive students in the classroom,” he said.

The bill goes back to the Senate for consideration of House changes.