Lafayette Parish School Board member Greg Awbrey believes he is charged with the noble cause of saving our teachers from the evils of our school system - hence his continued push to distribute a self-authored "Discipline Questionnaire" to the teachers of LPSS that he wants returned directly to him. Lafayette Parish School Board member Greg Awbrey believes he is charged with the noble cause of
Photo by Robin May
Greg Awbrey
saving our teachers from the evils of our school system - hence his continued push to distribute a self-authored "Discipline Questionnaire" to Lafayette Parish School System teachers.
Awbrey introduced his questionnaire during the board's May 1 meeting. What's even more troubling about the seven self-authored questions included in the survey is that he made no bones about who would be the sole recipient of the responses: Greg Awbrey himself.
Awbrey's introduction to the survey (with our emphasis added) reads:
This questionnaire is being sent to you in order for the school board to get a better understanding of the situation in your classroom. Specifically, the questions relate to discipline. I hope you will take a few minutes and fill this form out and return it to me as soon as possible. Feel free to enclose more pages with your comments if necessary. I will be publishing them for use by the school board and the public. Feel free to bring them by the house, mail or email the answers to me. Thank you for all you do on behalf of our children.
Fortunately, Superintendent Dr. Pat Cooper didn't hesitate in pointing out the overwhelming potential for abuse, calling the questions in Awbrey's survey "leading," "biased," and nothing short of a "fear mongering" attempt to pit teachers against principals. Among other inquiries, see below, Awbrey asks teachers whether they think they have support from the administration when it comes to discipline.
Cooper did suggest an alternative to Awbrey's idea: A survey created by a third party like UL Lafayette's Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning, which would still provide an avenue for teachers to give their thoughts on classroom discipline, but with bias-free questions, and a guarantee that the results are free of tampering - an unfortunate possibility considering that Awbrey's history of resistance to Cooper traces the entirety of his tenure as superintendent.
However logical Cooper's suggestion might sound, Awbrey isn't listening and will attempt to get board approval for his survey during tonight's meeting.
Below are the seven questions Awbrey included in his "questionable questionnaire":
