The jury found that Bray had "exceeded the bounds of common decency .... "
What usually happens when a student takes it into his head to disrupt a class? I'm not talking about the occasional guffaw. I mean day after day of shouting out in class, threatening the teacher, and generally creating an uproar that makes teaching and learning impossible. Often, not much at all.
If the teacher is fortunate, the principal deals swiftly and firmly with the disruption before it becomes a pattern. That gives the troublemaker - and the rest of the class -- a lesson in what will not be tolerated. But most teachers are not so fortunate. It's more likely that the student who is shouting and carrying on will get a couple of reprimands and a detention or two, and perhaps there will be a parent conference. Then, the problem is dumped right back in the teacher's lap. Things may improve, but then again they may not.
Frances Cook, a teacher in Campbell County, Kentucky, was not one of the fortunate ones. In 1993, Andy Bray, a student in her Spanish class, undertook what seemed to be a systematic campaign of disruption and harassment. He was repeatedly tardy and used obscene words and racial epithets. Cook, who was a teacher with 24 years experience, tried various ways of disciplining him, including a call to his mother, but nothing helped. As Bray's Spanish vocabulary increased, so did his offensive behavior. After the class learned the word matar, which means to kill or murder, he repeatedly yelled out the word in class. He told Cook that he was going to kill her, and even after he had been forbidden to use the word, he said, in a Spanish skit, "This food is terrible. I'm going to have to kill the cook." One day he came into class after a fight with another student and asked Cook, "Have you ever been so mad you wanted to kill somebody?" The assistant principal suggested that Cook ask Bray privately why he continued to say that he wanted to kill her. Cook says he responded "very calmly and quietly ... probably because I do."
Didn't the district have a discipline code? Maybe so, but either it didn't amount to much or the administration was not enforcing it. Bray's only punishment for his outrageous behavior was ... a parent conference. When the year was over, Cook breathed a sigh of relief, but the next year it appeared that Bray was going to continue his campaign, even though he was no longer Cook's student. Soon after school began, Cook retrieved a letter from Bray to some students in her class advising them on how to continue "the work" he had begun and "drive [her] over the edge." Bray's advice to his "disciples" included the following:
From this day forward, if the person sitting next to you is being quiet or doing their homework, cuss them out in Spanish and cause a huge disruption. To frighten teacher, speak each day about different methods of murder.
When she took this letter to the administration, the only response was to give Bray 40 minutes of detention. So Frances Cook decided she had had enough. Occasionally, teachers who have put up with this kind of abuse sue the school district or the parents. Cook had another idea. Believing that Bray was the wrongdoer and should be held responsible for his behavior, she decided to sue him.
Several weeks ago, Cook received her vindication. Although Bray's lawyer tried to present him as a harmless "Dennis the Menace" character, a Campbell County jury knew better. It found that Bray had "exceeded the bounds of common decency as would be observed in any civilized community" and awarded Cook compensatory damages of $8700 and punitive damages of $25,000, which Bray will be expected to pay.
Cook v. Bray is not about using lawsuits to settle school discipline cases (although it suggests that, in extreme situations, teachers can look there for redress). Its real message is that ordinary citizens -- like the twelve people on the Campbell County jury -- believe outrageous behavior on the part of students would be dealt with severely. This should not be any surprise. Public opinion surveys have repeatedly made that point. It's time for school administrators to get it, too.
I've talked in recent weeks about the AFT National Campaign for Standards of Conduct and Standards for Achievement. Cook v. Bray underlines some of the campaign's basic points. If we expect learning to go on, classrooms must be orderly - and that means disciplining students who repeatedly disrupt class. At issue is not simply respect for the teacher; it is respect for all the other students and their right to learn. As the campaign proceeds, we will be working to get school districts all over the country to establish or modify discipline codes so that they are clear, fair, and enforceable and to establish alternative educational placements for violent or chronically disruptive students. To do this, we need to mobilized public support. Cook v. Bray shows once more that it is firmly behind us.