Removing the violent students from school

Similarly Ken Klonsky, a recently retired teacher with many years' experience working with students with behaviour problems, was clear that this approach works best:

They're not working, they're throwing something around the room, you take them outside and say "Look, what's this problem today?" You only have six or seven other kids working individually in there, and then you can go through that with them...Because I was trained in that way, I actually did that even when I was teaching larger classes because I know that the best way of dealing with these kids is just talk to them. Not to confront them in front of other people. And I would get much better results doing that, because the kids could see that you cared. Often that's all they needed. If you said "Look, I don't have the time to deal with this now, but see me after class or after-school or lunchtime and I'll be happy to talk to you." That makes a big difference.... (Ken Klonsky)

Ken Klonsky also gave a vivid description of how to move from confrontation to collaboration:

One of the most important things was not to be oppositional. So even when you told them something or you made a request, you don't do it in front of them, you do it alongside them. Because the problem is not the kid or you, the problem should be the work or the situation. So if you go alongside them, you kind of point and say "Well, look. Here's the problem we're having. You're not learning this and neither is anybody else, so how can we-how can we together solve this problem?" (Ken Klonsky)

But there are fewer and fewer "bodies" in the school to provide this sort of support, to engage with students and try to understand why violence is occurring. Instead of questioning why students are misbehaving, schools institute consequences:

...[W]hen people say "this person has an anger management problem," we all deal with anger. So... do you deal with the end result in terms of focusing on consequence, or do you deal with what got them in the first place into that difficulty: the triggers... I think that's what you focus on... (Dale R. Callender)