That was the first lesson they had to learn. The second important thing we taught them was that school was a different place. We understood that they came from very tough neighborhoods where they needed to be certain kinds of people, but when they came to school, it was a whole different environment, and we expected a different kind of behavior. They learned that readily. They were very happy to be able to come to school and be safe and not have to worry about fighting.
People call that strict discipline.
We just call it civilized behavior. Our belief is that first comes order and then comes learning. Our youngsters were simply asked to be orderly. Even so, this is not some kind of a dour place where you walk around and no one can talk. Our guys can scream as loudly as anybody.