Local high school pupils and behaviour - AIBU to expect more?

[Elderemo]

I live in a fairly large town with two high schools close to the town centre. As a result most of the pupils pass through the town on their way to and from school. I work in the centre and pass through myself several times a day.

School A has a strict behaviour policy and for the most part the pupils behave. I expect general high school stuff from them which is fine but they don't cause problems. There was one issue with a pupil causing damage, I reported it to the school and it was dealt with.

School B has pupils who cause a lot of problems. Constant damage (today a group of them were smashing a cleaning in progress sign against a shop window), verbal abuse to anyone who asks them to stop, running into shops and knocking down displays. It's generally the same group every day. I report all of the incidents to the school because even though it is out of school time they are in uniform and I was brought up to believe in uniform you represent the school.

Unfortunately the school don't care. There's no other way to put it. They asked me to film the incidents which I do, and send onto them. Nothing is ever done. I asked for assurance that they are at least speaking to the pupils and they can't give me that. I even spoke to the neighbourhood policing team after seeing a child smash a large glass window and walk away laughing. They told me to speak to the school.

AIBU to expect the school to take some sort of action to address this?

parents on the whole are much more ineffective since Covid, they are present, but not really there if you know what I mean. Won’t accept school sanctions readily argue the toss about the most irrelevant thing and just need to not be the child’s best friend.

I think maybe you think schools have more authority and resources than they do. This problem is not the schools it’s the parents, but also the towns, how many people are reporting? If enough people report to the police and act then the stronger the case for action

Sounds like there are lots of bad parents.
There again how do you know the parents won’t support the school. If the police impose fines, arrest the pupils and issue punishments then the parents don’t have a choice. Once you cross a line that choice should be removed. Punishment issued even if it’s just a stern talking to and told next time you will get a fine.

Seriously, what goes through the mind of these kids?
“What shall we do after school today?”
”Well I do know a window that could do with a smash!”

YANBU OP but how much can you do? Police should most definitely be getting involved more.

Take a picture, report to the police every time.

Well I've sent the video of today (smashing the cone against windows and shutters) to both the school and the neighbourhood policing team.

I'm going to talk to a couple of the local shops later as suggested, we're all linked by radios which are also linked to cctv and the police. I'm going to ask them to report absolutely everything every time and see if that helps.

We had a "spate" of this in our town - kids from the local school trashing shops, shoplifting, smashing up the playground, beating up kids on the green in town. It was really really shocking and some were shouting homophobic and racist abuse at passers by which was extremely bad. The school has a really nice catchment, and generally has had a good reputation in recent years, so it was quite eye opening! The school turned a blind eye to it.
Eventually a person anonymously posted in our local Facebook group with a rough description of some of the perpetrators and it stopped almost overnight. Whether the school took more notice once it was all online, or the parents saw it and took action I don't know, but there hasn't been any issues since (and this was about 6 months ago).

Criminal activity and anti-social behaviour are the responsibility of the police. You need to get lots of people reporting every single time there is an incident. The more "dots" on the map (and they literally do have dots on the maps!) then the more seriously it has to be taken - it impacts on their performance targets and that isn't good for the police. When the police start rocking up regualrly at the school, the school then starts paying attention because that then impacts on them. But a few reports from one person don't cut it - the local community need to act in concert.

Schools do take notice but they are limited on how they can deal with it. Ultimately behaviour is a parental issue as a detention or exclusion isn't seen as big deal by some pupils.

Write to your MP and outline these scenarios and ask who should be responsible and cc in school and police force.

I don't think it's fair to say that the school are doing nothing.

I am sure they will be following their behaviour policy but they can't discuss it with you, and can't stop them reoffending.

If the kids don't care and the parents don't care, what can they realistically do? Just be glad you're not trying to teach them algebra or Shakespeare (or anything).

Hopefully your community policing team will take some action.

I think a lot of people have unrealistic expectations of what a school can do. They barely have the resources to cover lessons never mind have staff patrolling the local area outside of school hours to round up and pupils who are misbehaving. Even if they did do people really think these kids would take any notice.

Report criminal activity to police. It’s not for school to deal with criminal activity like window smashing. Can you make contact with Pcso and say what you’ve said here and see if they will speak to school.

This is where, in my view, it helps to have schools with high standards and high expectations. The DC’s school are very clear that DC are representing the school whenever they are in uniform and sanctions can and will be applied to miscreants.

DC were given detentions in the summer for walking home with their blazers off, so I dread to think what would happen if damage and vandalism was going on.

DC were given detentions in the summer for walking home with their blazers off, so I dread to think what would happen if damage and vandalism was going on.

I really dislike these arbitrary sort of rules. So silly and controlling and absolutely pointless if we’re honest about it. And unlikely to deter real bad behaviour, because being punished for doing nothing wrong just makes someone think ‘well I’ll get it eventually anyway, might as well do as I like.’

I am entertained that you think that you report something to the police and they still don’t get it back to schools.

I’ve lost count of quite serious offences that the police expect us to deal with,

Just not true in my experience @Kanaloa. If schools sweat the small stuff, DC know that any more serious transgressions will simply not be tolerated.

I dislike the assumption that a school must have low standards if some of their pupils are misbehaving in the community.

Mainstream schools have to take everyone and it is virtually impossible to exclude pupils now. If you are implementing every sanction at your disposal but the children simply do not care, and you are not supported by their parents, what can they do?

This school may have all the same policies as your school but a less compliant cohort, less supportive parents.

The sort of kid who would smash a shop window does not care about a detention or being told off at school. They don't care and chances are their parents don't care either. The school cannot solve the problem of anti social behaviour in the community. You need to start directing your complaints to the police.