Suspension policy step in right direction


  • July 11, 2014
  • /   Reggie Dogan
  • /   early-learning

Escambia County School District’s new suspension policy took me down memory lane.

It got me musing about the time I earned a three-day pass from school for what was really much ado about nothing.

A teacher said I “mocked” her.

I still today chuckle at the oxymoron. Some teachers make a mockery of themselves without much help from their students.

What I recall is that the teacher said something I didn’t want to hear, and I contorted and twisted my face while mouthing “blah, blah, blah silently.” Enough histrionics, they reasoned, to warrant three days of R & R for me.

I couldn’t wait to plop down Ohio Player’s “Heaven Must Be Like This” on my turntable.

Being out of school was heaven on earth. My parents were at work, my two brothers were at school and I was home alone as punishment for a school infraction.

School has to be the only place in the world where you can get time off for bad behavior.

Drunk on RC Cola and stuffed with Cheez Whiz and Ritz crackers, I lounged around watching Theodore Cleaver get into mischief and following Fred and Barney around Bedrock.

It’s wasn’t quite “Ferris Bueller Day Off”, but hey, who’s complaining?

If being at home alone with no teachers or tests, no treacherous bus rides or terrible lunches, I wonder why I didn’t find more mischief to get a free ticket home.

Because suspensions are usually more pleasurable than punishment, I applaud Escambia schools for the new policy that allows students to make up homework and tests they miss while suspended.

The School District decided to change the policy – which previously prohibited students from receiving a grade on work assigned during the out-of-school suspensions – in order to better ensure student success.

That makes much so more sense than sending a kid home for basically what amounts to a short vacation, sometimes without parental supervision or pedagogical oversight.

Malcolm Thomas, superintendent of Escambia County schools, surmised that suspensions – especially the lengthy ones of up to 10 days – could place students in the position of getting a failing grade because of the amount of work or tests they missed.

So, instead of sending them home with not much to do except watch TV, play video games or, God forbid, get in more trouble, the district now gives them the option of making up their work and earning a grade.

Besides, suspending students from school isn’t very effective anyway.

Time magazine, in a 2012 article, asked the question: “Does Suspending Students Work?”

Not much. In fact, suspensions may do more harm than good.

Studies have shown that out-of-school suspensions put students on the fast track to falling behind, dropping out and going to jail. What’s more, some groups are disproportionately suspended more than others.

Researchers in the April 2012 “Journal of School Violence” noted that most school districts used out-of-school suspensions even for minor disciplinary issues even though they tend to exacerbate problem behaviors and also may lead to academic problems.

Even more, out-of-school suspensions are not fairly applied with minority youth being assigned punitive suspensions at greater rates than non-minority youth, according to a 2012 report by the U.S. Department of Education.

The reasons suspensions oftentimes don’t succeed are rather obvious.

For one, students are not in class and miss out the on very reason they go to school: to learn.

Secondly, allowing students a few free days or weeks from school is anything but punishment for many of them, especially those who more likely to get in trouble and have an aversion to school anyway.

In defense of school officials, they need some kind of measures to punish students who consistently break rules and cause mayhem in the classroom.

Out-of-school suspension, however, should be a last resort. We need students at school in class every minute of the school day. They can’t afford a few days of rest and relaxation as this highly advanced, technological world passes them by.

I remember my suspension as if it were yesterday. It was my first and only out-of-school suspension, though in today’s world of stricter rules and harsher punishment for seemingly innocuous offenses, I probably would have spent many more days at home instead of at school.

I was fortunate to be studious enough that my grades didn’t suffer as a result. But too many kids miss too many days because of minor infractions and never catch up.

The reality is that most of the students who get suspended are the ones who need school the most. At-risk, troubled students already are far behind in the classroom. Suspensions only put farther behind with little chance of ever catching up.

We need to find more ways to keep students in school and on track to become productive high school graduates instead of destructive high school dropouts.

Escambia County School District’s new suspension policy is on the right track to do just that.

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