By all accounts, the previous principal had tremendous strengths in academic and curricular matters but was weak in management and discipline. Thus, when Mr. Barillas came into the school in 1995-96, his primary mission was to remedy this problem. He says that discipline was "terrible" when he arrived, and there was a notable gang presence in the school. His first step in developing a system of discipline was to form the teachers into groups and come up with 7 rules each-a total of 35 rules that they then narrowed down to a list of 7 for which they designed 7 consequences. There is zero tolerance for fighting.

The principal's leadership style is comprised of one-half discipline and one-half respect for students and staff. Mr. Barillas treats the faculty and staff as professionals and believes that giving teachers autonomy over such things as time management, the budget, and direct instruction is important to maintaining that professionalism. He trusts his teachers to do what's best for students. A strong motif at Marshall is that the principal empowers the teachers, and they in turn empower the students. Mr. Barillas himself has great respect for the student body. "We never call them 'boys and girls,' only 'young men and young ladies,' or 'ladies and gentlemen.' You cannot mandate to kids," he says, speaking about the discipline problems they had in the past. "Give them [a sense of their own] importance, and they'll do anything for you. Here, we give them all the attention, and they respond."

A key figure in the discipline system is Mr. Mendoza, the dean of students, a former teacher, former Marine and part-time policeman. His room on the second floor of the school maintains a steady stream of student traffic. Teachers are encouraged to use a two-step discipline process, according to Mr. Mendoza. They try to solve a behavior problem themselves within the classroom setting, but if this takes up so much time that it begins to distract other students from learning, they send students to him. Teachers send students with written referrals as to the nature of their transgression. Sometimes, students refer themselves because "somebody's on my case; help me out." Mr. Mendoza has considerable latitude with referred students. He may call the parents and convene a conference with the student, the parent, and the teacher who referred the child. He can suspend students, or he can have them do their work in his room for as long as they need to.

During the STW visit, a female student came in with a note from her teacher and a terrible scowl on her face. Mr. Mendoza began by saying, "Smile, it can't be that bad." The note said that a classmate had teased her, saying that she was spotted buying clothes in a thrift shop. The student replied, "I wasn't in no [expletive] thrift shop." In the ensuing dialogue between the student and Mr. Mendoza, she tried to blame everybody but herself for the incident: it was her classmate's fault for teasing her; it was the teacher's fault for sending her out of the room. Mr. Mendoza acknowledged each of these excuses, but finally got her to realize that she knew that bad language automatically meant she had to leave the class, and that the responsibility for using the bad language was, in the end, hers. He told her to take a seat and concluded that he would keep her for one or two class periods to cool down and then send her back. Mr. Mendoza considers his role key to making the school function; he says, "Where there's no discipline, there's no learning."

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