Los Angeles school’s Docter dies at 97: Win with spanking, lose with integration

Robert Docter, who as a Los Angeles school board member in the 1970s successfully pushed to end corporal punishment and sacrificed his political career to try to integrate schools through busing, has died at age 97.

Docter also taught at Cal State Northridge for 56 years and served as a district leader in the Salvation Army for decades.

He died at his home in Northridge on Nov. 3 of what his family said was neurological complications.

“He always saw the possibilities for students, teachers and families,” said Diane Watson, a former school board ally who later served in the state Legislature and Congress. “You can follow him because you know he chooses to do the right thing for young people.”

As a school board member from 1969 to 1977, Docter was most concerned about two issues: stripping school staff of their long-standing right to beat children and trying to quickly and aggressively address the harms of segregation.

Docter served as a school board member for six years, and in 1975 he and his allies pushed for a 4-3 vote to ban corporal punishment (also known as spanking or spanking) after many attempts.

“This is child beating, and we should get rid of policies that allow child beating,” Docter said. “Administrators and teachers should not do what Marine Corps instructors are prohibited from doing.”

At the time, an estimated 7 percent of California banned corporal punishment, even though Gov. Jerry Brown had just signed a law requiring parental permission. Banning corporal punishment was also a key demand of student and teacher activists, who participated in the massive Latino student strikes in Los Angeles schools in 1968.

It took several years for the ban to fully take effect as the school district developed other disciplinary methods.

The question remains open. In 2023, then-U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote that “23 states either explicitly allow or do not explicitly prohibit corporal punishment in schools” and that “corporal punishment in schools may be underreported.” Cardona called for an end to its use.

The battle over mandatory buses

Docter’s push for full integration failed.

As school board president, Docter became the face of the school system’s efforts to enforce court-ordered mandatory integration, including through mandatory busing, which he championed as a social justice imperative.

“I believe in a multicultural, multiracial society,” he said in a 1992 interview. “I’m always looking for smart ways to do that.”

The controversy over buses has divided the city, especially in the San Fernando Valley, where Docter lives. Amid death threats, police were sent to guard his home.

“People are anxious and confused,” Docter said in 1992. “They worry about the lack of control: ‘I bought a house in this neighborhood so my kids can go to this school!'” They’re bitter. Many people feel betrayed. “

There’s also pressure from the other side — liberal activists including future school board member Jackie Goldberg who argue that citywide integration should be the standard and that plans can be developed to avoid bus rides longer than 20 to 30 minutes. Goldberg recalled this week that she worried that Doggett’s resolve was weakening.

Docter remained determined.

In 1977, anti-parent abuse activist Bobbi Fiedler ran against Docter and won 56 percent of the vote.

“He was the epitome of a left-wing social planning liberal,” Federer said years later. “He’s on the wrong side of the issues. He’s out of touch with reality.”

Docter later said busing “should be introduced on a voluntary basis to allay the fears of the majority of the population and to counteract white flight”.

Eventually, the legal and political landscape changed, and Los Angeles Unified (with court approval) instituted voluntary integration, focusing primarily on elite schools with special, aspirational curricula and prioritizing admissions that promoted integration.

Limited mandatory busing almost never started and was never actually implemented.

By then, however, thousands of white parents had moved out of the area or removed their children from Los Angeles public schools, accelerating the demographic evolution that was already occurring. In 1963, when the first school desegregation lawsuits were filed, white enrollment was 55 percent; in 1976, when the busing disputes were at their peak, white enrollment was 37 percent.

Today it stands at 10% – a slight increase from recent years – and remains highly concentrated in a relatively small number of areas.

Docter later said that integration over the bus “did not fail.” “We just never tried it.”

Salvation Army Contact

Robert L. Docter was born in San Francisco on July 20, 1928, to Lloyd and Violet Doctor, who served as a Salvation Army chaplain and moved to Los Angeles in 1945, the following year Docter graduated from Fairfax High School.

His connection with the Salvation Army was lifelong. He met his future wife, Dolores Diane Beecher, at a Salvation Army summer camp. They married in 1953.

He played in the Army Band for more than 70 years and in the Tournament of Roses Band more than 50 times. He led open-air worship at the corner of Hollywood and Vine streets.

In 1983, he founded The Salvation Army New Frontier Press, serving as editor until 2017. During this period, he also wrote more than 600 columns. The Salvation Army wrote in a tribute that his work became “a companion to thousands of people, providing wisdom, wisdom and spiritual honesty.”

“He invited us to see the world through the lens of hope, sincerity, and conscience,” wrote his successor as editor, Christine Deem. “Yes, he believed deeply in the power of words – but even more in the power of the person behind the words.

In 1992, the organization awarded him its Founder’s Medal, the highest honor the Salvation Army can bestow on a lay member.

In the early 1990s, Robert Docter sat on the curb in front of Darby Avenue School, across from his home in Northridge.

(George William/Los Angeles Times)

Liaison with local schools

After his parents moved the family to Los Angeles, Docter attended local public schools and graduated from Fairfax High School.

He received a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA in 1952, a master’s degree in education from the University of Southern California in 1956, and a doctorate in educational psychology from the same university in 1960.

He also served in the U.S. Army from 1952 to 1954, stationed at Fort Ord in Monterey, and played trumpet in the 6th Infantry Division Band. Thereafter, he taught at Van Naerden Elementary School in Tarzana for six years while earning an advanced degree.

In 1960, he joined the education faculty at San Fernando Valley State College (which later became California State University, Northridge).

Dr. Docter, an associate professor of education and father of children in public schools who was one of 21 candidates for three board seats in 1969, said the state’s largest school systems too often maintain an unsatisfactory status quo rather than update their teaching methods.

In the boardroom, he became a zealous defender for Los Angeles United while also pushing for change. He called board member J.C. Chambers a “racist” when The Times quoted Chambers as saying he didn’t want to “mix the races” and making other derogatory remarks about black students.
Although Docter was a staunch supporter of union bargaining rights, he fell out with the teachers union, which derailed his doomed re-election bid. He lost the support of his unions after backing a plan to integrate teachers and students – which will result in some forced reallocations.

He has written three books: The View from the Corner (2008), an allusion to the title of his regular column, Integrity: A Complete Life (2015), and a novel, Lost and Found
In Montana” (2022).

Doggett did not run for office after leaving the school board.

His daughter Sharon Doggett said he had “no political ambitions.” “All he cared about was education. That was his passion… What he wanted was to make a change.”

He continued to think about the state of schooling and expressed misgivings about reducing educational attainment to numbers on standardized tests. Instead, he said in the interview, more emphasis should be placed on ethics, as well as critical thinking and arts education.

He is survived by his twin brother, Richard F. Docter; His wife of 71 years died on April 27. Other survivors include 6 children – Sharon and Richard Docter, Janet Pollock, Mary Docter, John Docter and Julie Jennings – 15 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

The Salvation Army Pasadena Tabernacle Corps will hold a Celebration of Life on Sunday, December 7 at 2 p.m.