Three weeks after taking over as principal at the Jill Kinmont Booth School in Bishop, Inyo County Superintendent of Schools Terry McAteer reports progress in his efforts to increase student discipline.

McAtteer says that he was appalled, by the lack of respect shown by students at the community school, so he took over the principals job at JKB. Students at the community school have typically been expelled from other schools in the county or placed there by juvenile probation.

The goal of the school is to get troubled students back to the regular high schools, but McAteer says that often the system results in an endless circuit of students that constantly move between probation, JKB, and the high schools.

Realizing that the buck stops with me, McAteer stepped in as principal at Jill Kinmont Booth. With students often wandering back to campus after lunch drunk or high, McAtteer closed the campus, meaning that students dont leave for lunch.

Another new rule is that if a student is suspended three times, the students parent has to attend school with the student for a day. The parent doesnt like it, the student doesnt like, its not rocket science, McAteer says.

Those are the sticks. For the carrot, McAteer says that students who show improvement can have their rights to leave campus at lunch returned.

The students were running school, he says. With these new restrictions in place, the plan is to teach respect and get back to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Starting the fourth week as principal, McAteer says he has seen tremendous improvement.

If these changes dont work, McAteer has made students at community schools were a shirt and tie as an incentive to not get sent to

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