Tucson Standard

Teachers, parents, and students in the Tucson Unified School District have been asking for changes to the Code of Conduct due to growing behavioral issues and outcomes from the school.

The district was presented with the first iteration of those updates recently, with a vote on final changes set for June 13.

Anna Warmbrand, the director of Student Relations, presented an overview of changes and revisions, and those interested in seeing the final suggestions are invited to attend a meeting June 6.

“I just want to give a quick word to the public,” Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said during the May 23 meeting where the suggested changes were first announced. “On June 6, the governing board will actually see the actual red line version of the code of conduct that will also be available for the public as an attachment as part of the June 6 materials. You'll be able to follow along with the red line code of conduct along with our board members, as they study the item that night.” 

During the public comment portion of the May meeting, community members spoke about the need for a revised conduct policy. A staff member talked about students making threats against his life. Others mentioned teacher retention rates and the safety of their students. And a board member read a letter written by a fifth-grader in the district, who asked for stricter consequences for repeated problems because they have seen their classmates continue with the same behaviors throughout the entire year.

Warmbrand discussed the various stakeholders whose voices went into making the revisions presented to the board. Almost 10,000 people had input across all areas and levels of the district. She discussed the five major revisions suggested by the group which were: separating the code into three sections for elementary, middle, and high school; extending the amount of time students can be enrolled in the District Alternative Education Program (DAPE); adding more specific language to violations of audio and visual offense portions; expanding alternative education options to include Tucson Unified Virtual Academy as an alternative to suspension in some cases; and moving defiance and disrespect toward teachers be more specified and reclassifying as a level three offense. 

Having separate elementary, middle, and high school sections would allow the code to make certain behaviors more or less serious, depending on age and frequency in the schools. The rewrite moves many of the violations from one level to another to better fit the stakeholders’ views of what the issues actually are. Many high school infractions were upgraded to be classified as more serious. Aggression and truancy were moved to level 2 from level 1; alcohol/tobacco and trespassing went to a level 3 offense from level 2; and having a fake or toy firearm was upgraded to a level 4 violation. 

The board will review the red line version, which is a more official rewriting of the code, at its June 6 board meeting. There they can make any further changes or suggestions based on their thoughts or further community input, and they can make the earliest possible official decision on June 13. The district posted the red line version on Thursday, giving community members access to proposed changes ahead of the vote.