Lew's View: Drugs, Distraction, Less Discipline in Schools

Lew Leone is the vice president and general manager of WNYW-FOX 5. He is taking to the airwaves with his thoughts on current affairs. It's called "Lew's View." The views expressed are not necessarily those of the station or its employees.

In this commentary, Mr. Leone talks about the negative effect of recent policies on schools and schoolchildren.

Drugs, distraction and less discipline. That's what the current mayor seems to be advocating in the New York City public school system.

In his ongoing effort to undo the progress of previous mayors, Bill de Blasio continues to make decisions that go against the better interests of our struggling school system and in direct conflict with the new standards of the Common Core.

Common Core was put in place to raise our children's education standards, to be more competitive with other countries preparation for college entrance exams and to produce more critical and creative thinkers.

The decriminalization of marijuana sends the message to kids that it is an OK thing to do unless you have too much of it. Does anyone think getting stoned is going to allow kids to focus and stay serious and determined in their studies?

By not giving school principals the power to suspend chronic troublemakers and bullies our progressive mayor limits their ability to effectively create a safe and harassment free learning environment. Instead of giving the well-compensated, supposedly trusted leaders the confidence and latitude to quickly act on discipline issues and deal with the few "bad apples" on a case-by-case basis, de Blasio puts the over 1 million students in all districts under a single bureaucratic Education Department central office for discipline.

By allowing cell phones in school without clear policy guidelines, chaos is reigning in classrooms across the city.

Do we care if our kids are distracted, non-attentive and not focused on developing strong conversational and verbal communication skills?

Yes we do care. So why would we intentionally encourage kids to bring their cell phones to school; with games, social media apps, it is a device loaded with distraction.

I am afraid that with all of these liberal policies kids will be less willing and able to learn what our parents taught us: which is the value of hard work, discipline, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and caring for one another.