Tolu Salako
Staff Writer

Everyday and in almost every class, there is always “that student.” The student always disagreeing with the teacher, claiming they would never use the information being taught in real life; the student yelling inappropriate comments from the back of the classroom and laughing with their circle of friends.

Disrespect in the classroom has become a major issue at Coppell High School and has increased as the years have progressed.

Every year teachers are confronted with verbally disrespectful students in their classrooms and no matter how hard they try to confront them on their disrespectful actions; students still have the audacity to carry out in their disrespectful ways. Teachers regard disrespect as talking while they are talking, not taking advantage of the material being taught, not meeting expectations and working on other class assignments in class.

“I really try to approach [disrespect] in a stern but light type of way,” English teacher Brynlea Taylor said. “But I make sure I don’t disrespect [my students] but they also have to understand that they were out of line”

There is no doubt that all teachers have different ways of running their classrooms. Students regard their teachers as either “chill” or disciplinarians. Though these classroom feels are polar opposites, there are still groups of students still equally disrespectful in both classes no matter how the classroom is set up.

Math teacher Michelle McAlister said students have the tendency to be highly disrespectful.

“I teach math and not a lot of people like math so they get frustrated,” McAlister said. “When people get a bad grade, they get really upset and defensive so they go on the attack and that’s when they get disrespectful.”

Teachers are not the only people at Coppell High School that has a problem with the increase amount of disrespect. Students can relate to being in several classes in which students are continuously being disrespectful and therefore do not get things accomplished in their classes.

“It makes me angry that [students] are disrespectful when I’m trying to learn,” sophomore Carmen Wells said, “Teacher’s try really hard to keep us focused and entertained while teaching us”

Many teachers tend to deal with disrespect on an individual basis by ignoring, addressing the problem or calling them out. Disrespect can come in all different shapes and sizes and teachers blame parents, media and students’ personal insecurities for their actions.

“Many parents make excuses for their kids,” Spanish teacher Janine Kay said. “Kids will skip class and parents would cover for them which is just disrespectful.”

Along with the lack of strict parenting at home, the media can contribute to the increase of disrespect in the classroom. New artists have been releasing songs with inappropriate messages directed to teenagers along with certain TV shows influencing teens to become disrespectful.

“The music today is all about doing what you want to do or going against authority,” Taylor said. “The messages are so inappropriate and students no longer have a healthy fear of authority”

Every student is different and therefore teacher have different ways in disciplining them. The average CHS teacher has more than 100 students per day and they are put into stressful situations in disciplining their students and students outside of their class.

There’s no doubt that teachers have problems with the disrespect in their classrooms, no matter how hard they try to discipline their students, disrespect is still evident in all CHS classrooms.