The Maryland State Teachers Association is dedicated to advancing high-quality, universal, and free public education built on excellent teaching practices, high student expectations, and a genuine opportunity to learn for each student. The Association is further committed to building a unified education profession with a powerful voice for the rights, professional interests, and working conditions of educational employees and working to enhance the rights of labor, and human and civil rights for all. Even before the shocking events at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, sent us all looking for solutions, we knew that discipline, order and safety were critical foundations to learning. And despite a few alarming incidents that jar us with their senselessness, public schools continue to be the safest places for children. Less than one percent of all violent deaths of children occur on school grounds.
Injuries are equally rare.
But one violent incident is too many. The annual Metropolitan Life Survey of the American Teacher has, since 1984, determined that teachers overwhelmingly believe that emphasizing discipline and safety will have a positive effect on learning. Maryland's New Law Enforces Discipline. With encouragement and support from MSTA, the Maryland General Assembly in 1996 passed a law to promote order and discipline and prevent violence in public schools throughout the state. It set high expectations that each school district will establish and enforce discipline and safety standards, train school employees to maintain order and provide targeted grants for local schools for models of prevention and intervention.