Priorities for School Safety: The Alignment between Federal and State School Safety Legislation

240 Pages·2017·1.89 MB·English

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Anthony D. Mortimer
University of North Florida, [email protected]
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Mortimer, Anthony D., "Priorities for School Safety: The Alignment between Federal and State School
Safety Legislation and Safety Needs as Perceived by Education Stakeholders in Florida Private Schools
for Exceptional Students" (2018). UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 807.
https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/807
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Running Head: EXCEPTIONAL STUDENTS’ SAFETY PERCEPTIONS

Priorities for School Safety: The Alignment between Federal and State School Safety Legislation and
Safety Needs as Perceived by Education Stakeholders in Florida Private Schools for Exceptional Students
by
Anthony Dale Mortimer

A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Leadership,
School Counseling & Sport Management
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES
March 2018
Unpublished work © Anthony Dale Mortimer
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EXCEPTIONAL STUDENTS’ SAFETY PERSPECTIVES
This dissertation titled Priorities for School Safety: The Alignment between Federal and State School
Safety Legislation and Safety Needs as Perceived by Education Stakeholders in Florida Private Schools
for Exceptional Students

Dr. Carolyne Ali-Khan, Committee Chair

Dr. Daniel Dinsmore, Committee Co-Chair

Dr. Anne Swanson, Committee Member 2

Dr. Michael Binder, Committee Member 3

Accepted for the Leadership, School Counseling & Sport Management:

Dr. Liz Gregg, Department Chair

Accepted for the College of Education and Human Services:

Dr. Diane Yendol-Hoppey, Dean

Accepted for the University:

Dr. John Kantner, Dean of the Graduate School
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EXCEPTIONAL STUDENTS’ SAFETY PERCEPTIONS
DEDICATION
This dissertation is dedicated to the amazing students of Greenwood School. The driving
force behind my desire to become a high school administrator was to help students who were
“falling through the cracks” of the education system in Florida—to mentor those who had been
misunderstood, mistreated, misguided, and/or neglected by the machinery of modern education
and its tendency to stifle the creativity and wonder of individual learning differences. Each one
of you at Greenwood generously provides immense personal and professional fulfillment to my
life, and I consider myself unfathomably privileged to be involved in your lives. At the same time,
I am incredibly humbled by your passion, perseverance, and willingness to be vulnerable by
partnering with me and with your teaching faculty to discover the wealth of opportunities
awaiting you—and I am encouraged by your dedication to not only take advantage of those
opportunities, but to use them to make your communities and the world around you a better,
more understanding place.
I speak to you often about the concepts of truth, identity, and responsibility. Truth—not a
simple collection of facts, historical events and dates, or scientific principles, but a critical
understanding of why the world matters to you and how the world depends upon your influence.
Identity—that you are not reducible to a number, a test score, a gender, a race, religion, or
creed, but rather that you are a wonderfully complex and balanced recipe of all those
ingredients, held together by those truths and values meaningful to your lives. Responsibility—
not a simple habit of compliance to a set of rules, traditions, or customs, but a compelling need
to use your understanding of truth and the power of your identity to positively impact the world
around you. You are, and will increasingly become, the undeniable evidence that although the
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cliché claims that one person cannot change the world, teams of individuals who have been
empowered to express their true selves together can radically create a society that deserves
respect because it practices respect for all.
Thank you for inspiring me, and so many others. Thank you for challenging me to
become better. Most of you will likely never read this, but know that your daily examples are the
foundation for my work.
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EXCEPTIONAL STUDENTS’ SAFETY PERSPECTIVES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the many individuals and organizations
that have encouraged, supported, and assisted me throughout this portion of my academic
journey. First, to my supervisors in my previous career who motivated me and graciously
allowed the time for me to pursue this dream: Captain (Retired) Jim Pendley, Commander Clell
Simmons, Captain Brian Nickerson, Captain (Retired) Bob Kapcio, Commander (Retired) Mike
Russo, Commander Neil Brennan, specifically, in addition to so many of my peers throughout
the second half of my life in the United States Navy who cheered me on. Your leadership and
support prepared me more thoroughly for my career in academia than anything or anyone else
could have done. Likewise, Mr. Emlyn James and Mrs. Beverly Connell, the current and retired
Heads of Greenwood School—thank you for believing in my potential and for providing support
and perspective for so much of the most difficult portions of my academic marathon.
My University of North Florida family has so greatly broadened my appreciation for the
intangible—and invaluable—facets of advanced education. I have learned so much from each of
you, but there are several I would like to thank more specifically.
Dr. Chris Janson, thank you for your enthusiasm; for your consistent challenge to us to
value the stories of individuals as indispensable components of all leadership endeavors; and for
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EXCEPTIONAL STUDENTS’ SAFETY PERCEPTIONS
being the calm, patient, and honest voice of stability during many of the most uncertain times
throughout this program.
Dr. Luke Cornelius, thank you for your willingness to bring me into the program at UNF;
for your tireless efforts to improve its processes and outcomes; and for your involvement with
my students as an example of the opportunities available to them.
To my Dissertation Committee members: Dr. Michael Binder, I thank you for inspiring in
me the ideas that led to the development of a research topic that allowed me to combine my
background experiences with my current and future interests; also, for demystifying the
connections between quantitative statistics and the real experiences of individuals. Dr. Anne
Swanson, thank you for the perspectives from your public education leadership experiences, and
for your patient encouragement.
My Committee Co-chairs—Dr. Carolyne Ali-Khan and Dr. Dan Dinsmore—could not
have been a more knowledgeable, enthusiastic, responsive team. Dan, I am in perpetual awe of
your command of research methodology and immensely grateful for your skill in communicating
processes and techniques in practical and readily understandable ways. Carolyne, without your
attentive care and compassion, I would not have been able to finish this program. I want you to
know how greatly I admire, and endeavor to emulate, the way you challenged me to broaden
what I had believed to be an already open mind. Thank you for your guidance and for your living
example of the importance of balance.
Cohort 22. What can I say—we are a fully-defined example of how a group of
individuals from wildly diverse backgrounds and beliefs, widely varied experiences and
aspirations, and dramatically different leadership styles can work together to produce incredibly
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powerful results. Amy, Angela, Brenda, Brian, Dei, Joanna, Paula, Rebecca, Robert, Rudy,
Tamara, and Travis—I love you all as my Cohort family and I am dearly grateful for your
friendship and everything I have learned from each one of you.
Finally—to my wife, Erica, and my sons, Christian and Ian: thank you for tolerating my
full schedules, my odd (and sometimes excessive) work habits, and my seemingly constant
chatter about my research. I love you and I am proud of you.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page

Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgments............................................................................................................................v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................. viii
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... xi
Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................1
Background and Context ..............................................................................................................1
Context of the Problem ................................................................................................................7
Who are “Exceptional” Students? ..............................................................................................12
Key Questions ............................................................................................................................14
Definitions of Terms ....................................................................................................................14
Measures and Variables .............................................................................................................17
Overview of Theoretical Framework .........................................................................................19
Significance ...............................................................................................................................21
Limitations of the Study ............................................................................................................23
Delimitations of the Study .........................................................................................................24
Organization of the Study ..........................................................................................................25
Chapter One Summary ...............................................................................................................27
Chapter 2: Review of Literature ................................................................................................28
Theoretical Framework ...............................................................................................................29
Core Concepts ............................................................................................................................33
Diffusion: Legislative Bandages Gone Gangrenous ..................................................................36
Diffusion Mechanisms ...............................................................................................................37
Zero Tolerance ...........................................................................................................................43
Public Schools and the Constitution ..........................................................................................47
Private Schools and School Safety Laws ...................................................................................53
ADA, IDEA and Exceptional Students ......................................................................................57
Specialized Private Schools for Exceptional Students ..............................................................62
Are Schools Safe? Indicated risks .............................................................................................64
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Assessing Risks to School Safety ..............................................................................................65
Administrator Perceptions .........................................................................................................71
Faculty Fears ..............................................................................................................................71
How do Students Feel? ..............................................................................................................72
The Elusive Factor of Parental Perceptions ...............................................................................74
Conclusion—What Knowledge is Missing? ..............................................................................76
Chapter 3: Methodology..............................................................................................................78
Research Design ........................................................................................................................78
Site selection- Context and access .............................................................................................79
Description of the Population ....................................................................................................80
Description of the sample (size and power) ...............................................................................81
Sampling method(s): ..................................................................................................................82
Protocols and Instrumentation ...................................................................................................83
Research Protocols and Instrumentation ..................................................................................86
Reliability and Validity ..............................................................................................................86
Data Sources and Coding ...........................................................................................................89
Data Collection ..........................................................................................................................95
Researcher positionality .............................................................................................................97
Data Analysis ...........................................................................................................................100
Chapter Summary ....................................................................................................................101
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Results .....................................................................................102
Data Preparation ......................................................................................................................102
Respondent Demographics ......................................................................................................103
Results ......................................................................................................................................105
Chapter Four Summary ............................................................................................................113
Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations .....................................................................114
Summary of Findings ................................................................................................................114
Discussion ................................................................................................................................116
Limitations of the Study ..........................................................................................................121
Significant Implications ...........................................................................................................123
Conclusions ..............................................................................................................................126