Why California’s Schools Are Losing Their Teachers, Part III

Commentary
In Part I and Part II, I described Marina Middle School in San Francisco. The principal, the secretary, the custodian, several teachers—all walked away. The school had devolved into a blackboard jungle. Students were in charge.
In San Francisco, this was not the first such incident. Everett Middle School had incidents of violence and loss of staff, and in February 2020, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Aptos Middle School had a “Lord of the Flies” environment. A small group of students had “managed to wrest control of the school from the adults.”
One reason is that districtwide, schools are operating with as many as 25 percent of teaching positions unfilled. This puts enormous pressure on school principals, especially when coupled with the California Superintendent of Public Instruction’s mandate not to suspend students for misbehavior—because they can’t learn at home and because they shouldn’t be punished for teacher Eurocentrism….