We have almost 300 supporters for our petition to the West Babylon Board of Education! One of the questions we are getting repeatedly is “well, if we can’t take away recess, how do we discipline our children?” This petition is NOT about not disciplining children—it’s about thinking out of the box to find OTHER WAYS to discipline. Thankfully, many other districts are doing this really well and we don’t have to go too far to find alternative ideas and suggestions…. Here are just a few suggestions from Center for Science in the Public Interest: • Student must clean up the mess he/she made (pick up toys in the classroom, put away books in the library, or pick up trash outside) • Student must write an essay on what he/she did wrong and how to behave better next time (good for reflection and self-evaluation) • Have the student and teacher call home together to report misbehavior to family • Send a note about misbehavior home, have it signed by parent and return it the next school day (try to involve parents with improving student’s behavior) • Do community service inside the building before school or after school Before we see change in our schools, we need to get administration and the BOE on board. The more West Babylon residents who sign the petition, the stronger our message becomes. Thank you for joining us. Please consider asking your friends and family to sign so we can speak with a stronger voice to create this important change in our community. Thank you for your support! Sincerely, Sherry, Janet, Barbara, Susan, Christine, Erin and Liz