Local public schools suspended and expelled far fewer students last year as they continued to shift away from punishment and toward prevention and positive reinforcement, according to the latest figures from the California Department of Education...There's a simple reason for this. We're told we can't suspend students; if we do, we run this risk of being investigated by the Office of Civil Rights, having a drumhead trial, being found guilty--and the penalties for district and school administrators can be extreme.
Similar stories have played out across the region. Each of the 10 largest districts suspend a lower proportion of students today than five years ago.
And students, especially students who cause trouble, know this.
2 comments:
I remember when the Trayvon Martin case was going on and I was looking into various stories about him. The year he was killed his school or district had won an award for the reduction in cases involving law enforcement. In actuality the reduction was from a reclassification of when they would contact law enforcement. The end result being that if Trayvon had committed the same infraction the previous year he would not have been suspended, but would have been turned over to law enforcement. Thus he would not have been sent to stay with his dad during his suspension.
It appears to me that administrators are invested in throwing good money after bad when it comes to students behavior. Case in point: Block Lunch. At our school block lunch was implemented because a demographic segment of our student population continues to lag behind in test scores. For years they've offered one on one mentoring, small group tutoring, snacks, transportation and more--but students would skip, they would avoid showing up and ultimately their parents would make excuses. So since all these kids could never come early (although they showed up for band practice) and could never stay late (although they could make athletics practice) our administration made lunch an hour long for everyone with the idea that these kiddos would eat lunch and then show up for tutoring. They don't. They roam the halls, starting fights, yelling, playing the music on their phones up to 11, and generally making it impossible for the few kids who do show up to get help because of the roar of the crowds in the hallways. Our administrators know it's not working. This year, because of the fights, kids have to wear ID's. They gave them NINE chances to comply before consequences kick in. Our librarians spend the entire day making temporary badges rather than managing the library. Administrators simply don't want to admit that their shiny idea doesn't work. In the meantime we have to deal with snarky students, vandalism, fights, running, noise and more during the hour that is block lunch. All of this is for one demographic group whose parents couldn't be bothered to make them show up for tutoring.
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