Administrators

An administrator facing the news media over a parent's complaint often winds up caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place: violate confidentiality laws or let the parent's version of events go unchallenged.

Officials in the Wake County, N.C., schools pictured just this dilemma as they launched a campaign aimed at improving discipline three years ago. What if, they asked, parents upset over a student's suspension or expulsion portray the action as unfair and unwarranted? And what if, thanks to a principal's "no comment," the other side of the story ends up untold?

Jim Surratt, the superintendent of the Raleigh-based district, came up with the idea of parental waiver forms that give administrators permission to discuss a student's record...