When a typical Paly student thinks of Douglas Walker, Palo Alto High School assistant principal, he or she thinks of a big, tough disciplinarian. Walker deals with suspensions, referrals, academic dishonesty, and the police on a daily basis. But, few students know that Walker bases his life on a single, 26-line inspirational poem.
Walker was first introduced to this poem, "What Will Matter," during a California Interscholastic Federation meeting in February of 2005 where the poem’s author, Michael Joseph, read it in front of the whole auditorium.
"As I listened to him read the poem, I thought to myself, "This is it!" Walker said in an interview with Voice reporters in early March. "This is what life is all about. This poem is me."
"What Will Matter" is a poem that describes timeless virtues. The poem addresses the idea that material possessions or "wealth, fame and temporal power" that mattered to a person in life, will be completely irrelevant in the end. According to the poem, the same will follow for grudges, resentments, frustrations, hopes, ambitions and other superficial plans.
"What you built, what you gave … your significance … what you taught … your acts of integrity, compassion, courage and sacrifice," are what will matter, according to the poem.
Because of following this philosophy, Walker especially values his job dealing with adolescents and trying to impact their lives.
"When I leave this place people will remember me for the changes that I made at the school and the individual changes that I made in the kids’ lives," Walker said.
When in high school, Walker never imagined that he would work in education. Years later, in the middle of his eighth job in that field, he could not dream of what his life would be like elsewhere.
Walker came to Paly in 2000, but his experience in education has a long history. He started off as a physical education teacher in Redwood City. From there, Walker continued on to other jobs, including teaching social studies at the Sunnyvale School District and serving as an athletic recruiter and a counselor at Oregon State University.
"When an opportunity presents itself, you better grab it because it might not present itself again," Walker said. "I’m a gypsy, I like to move around a lot and see the world."
Walker currently handles the disciplinary consequences students face after infringing upon a school rule.
"Chaos seems to be my life, but things usually work themselves out," said Walker, adding that he believes in a fair and equal chance for both parties. "You come in here, I don’t care what you’ve done, you get to tell your side of the story."
Deciding on the punishment is often a tedious task.
"I try to make the punishment fit the crime," Walker said.
According to Walker, he deals with 10 to 15 referrals every week, generally having to do with students misbehaving in class. Walker is also responsible for handing out suspensions. Last semester, Walker gave out 31 suspensions, and, as of March 29, there have been 17 so far this semester, Walker said. Additionally there have been two expulsions this year, according to Walker.
The amount of honesty that the student shares about his or her actions influences Walker’s decisions.
"I respect it when a student is honest, especially about what they have done wrong," Walker said.
Although Walker must do the job of dealing with the bad consequences of students’ actions, he still feels that there is a mutual respect.
"At the end of the day, after we talk, the kids understand what they have done wrong and aren’t bitter about the consequences," Walker said. "They know their punishment was fair."
While most adults have a typical daily routine, Walker’s schedule varies from day to day, he said. The amount of time that he spends at school can fluctuate from nine hours on some days to 16 hours on others.
"There is nothing normal about my day," Walker said. "On a given day I could have meetings about attendance, athletics, teachers, special education or community events."
Since Walker deals with different incidents, events may just pop up forcing him to be very flexible with his schedule.
"Sometimes it gets very overloaded in here [the Main Office]," Walker said. "That means that I might not have time for everyone at that exact moment, but I promise that if you need to talk to me, we will find a time."
Despite the fact that Walker is forced to do the "dirty work" with the students, he feels that his contact with them is the best part of his job.
"The thing I most enjoy is my engagement with students, it keeps me abreast of what is going on in the youth culture," Walker said.
Although he is an educator by profession, Walker feels that the learning goes both ways.
"They’re constantly teaching me, and I hope I’m teaching them," Walker said.
One of the biggest problems that Walker deals with is alcohol consumption at school dances. He sees raising the level of security at dances, by stationing members of the Palo Alto police force there, as a precaution to make sure that students are safe.
"We just try to make sure that you [the students] are safe," Walker said.
Walker says that he sees all Paly students as his kids, so he believes he has the responsibility to protect them.
"[I am] trying to get over to young folks that they should be careful with what they consume," Walker said. "Think twice before the sacrifice. Be careful what you do; don’t overdo it."
Students should treat the campus as their home as well, according to Walker. He strongly believes that students should not do things on campus that they would not do at home. For that reason, he gets very angry when he sees kids littering the campus or leaving the library dirty and disorganized.
"Kids should take care of their school, because after all it is theirs for the next four years," Walker said.
Walker says that if he could make a substantial change in the school, he would modify the preparatory period (prep) system to help the school deal with the attendance problem.
"Students should only have preps during first period or seventh period," Walker said. "That way, there would be a block of time where no one would be out of class, and we could easily tell if a student was cutting if he or she were outside."
The second major thing that Walker would do would be to install video cameras near the bike cages and the lockers, to help out with the ongoing theft problem at the school, especially of bicycles. According to Walker’s records, there have been 114 theft reports filed this school year, and 22 students have reported bike thefts in the past year as well. According to Walker, he estimates that there are another 50 incidents that have gone unreported this year. Walker is not the only administrator who is advocating for additional security measures, though. Palo Alto High School principal, Scott Laurence, is also working with the district to augment campus security, according to Walker.
"Over the past few years we have had incidents with vandalism and theft," Walker said. "It would make it very easy for us to deal with those types of situations with security cameras."
Walker would also like to see artificial turf replace the grass on the athletic fields.
"Adding turf to the football stadium and other fields around the school would really help us cut down on maintenance costs in the long run," Walker said,
Although Walker is a busy man, he still finds time to do the things that he loves, including golf and spending time with his wife and four kids.
"Many people say that they’re family is number one, but for me, it goes me first and then my family because if I don’t worry about my own happiness, I won’t be able to last for long," Walker said.
Mirroring the message of Joseph’s poem, Walker said, "You only live life once, you’ve got to do things that you like to do."