Are we pushing kids into the school-to-prison pipeline with suspensions?
Many schools maintain a push and pull approach to attendance. One one hand, school administrators make extensive efforts to push parents to get their children to class.
Yet, schools adhere to suspension policies that pull students out of their seats for minor infractions. In 2010, U.S. schools suspended more than 3 million students in kindergarten through 12th grade. And many of those students were minorities and children with disabilities, according to a new analysis of data from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
The review by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, found one in six African-American students was suspended from school, more than three times the rate of their white counterparts. Those findings are creating significant concern as school suspensions are linked to retention, lower graduation rates and funneling kids into what is known as the “school-to-prison pipeline.”
The analysis also found that more than 13 percent of students with disabilities were suspended, twice the rate of their non-disabled classmates. It also showed that one out of every four black children with disabilities was suspended at least once in 2009-2010.
The typical response is that black students misbehave more but the research refutes that contention. Instead, studies show that black students are punished more severely when they misbehave and for infractions that are often judgment calls — talking back or showing disrespect.
Students are increasingly suspended for nonviolent infractions such as truancy, dress code violations, inappropriate language, insubordination and disruptions.
“A driver in the increase in suspensions and expulsions has been the rise of zero-tolerance polices in the late 1980s and early ’90s,” said Russell Skiba of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University on a conference call on the UCLA findings.
The UCLA analysis found disparate suspension rates across schools and among schools with similar demographics. “A number of districts in the same state don’t have high rates of the use of suspension and expulsion,” said Skiba. “The use of suspension and expulsion is, in fact, a choice.”
And it’s a bad one, said Tina Dove of the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign, an advocacy group supporting a moratorium on out-of-school school suspensions. Launched in late August, the “Solutions Not Suspension” campaign urges schools to adopt in-school disciplinary alternatives, especially for lesser infractions.
“As a former teacher, I know firsthand the negative impact of kids being out of school, out of their chairs on suspension,” Dove said in a telephone interview. “Every day, we are seeing more and more situations where children are sent out of school for random and capricious offenses. It is too severe — it is like imposing a life sentence for behaviors that are all too often a part of growing up.”
Dove understands her colleagues still in the classroom may disagree and tell her that the price of reduced suspensions is a higher tolerance of bad behaviors. And that leads to classes held hostage to troublemakers.
“This is by no means a call to ignore the elephant in the room,” said Dove. “There is no doubt that a disruptive child in the class makes the job of the teacher more difficult and makes it more difficult for the students trying to learn. But going to the opposite extreme — let’s just throw them out of the class — is also not good.”
UCLA study lead author Daniel J. Losen said some districts agree and are reducing suspension rates, citing the 84,000-student Baltimore City Schools, which, under CEO Andres Alonso, went from 26,000 suspensions in 2003-2004 to 10,000 six years later.
“We are turning the corner, but we haven’t fully turned it yet,” Losen said.
As a teacher, Dove said she came to realize that problem students often had problems. Perhaps, they couldn’t hear or see well enough to follow in class. They might be hungry. Mood swings in her high schools students often reflected personal or family struggles.
“Suspending them doesn’t solve any of these problems,” Dove said. “Let’s slow down. Let’s stop throwing them out. Let’s come together, teachers, administrators, parents, students and community, and devise a plan that works. We have already seen places that have done this. This is not poppycock. Working together, instead of working in isolation, creates alternatives so we can keep kids where we need them to be — in the classroom and learning.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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197 comments Add your comment
mountain man
September 11th, 2012
12:15 pm
How about this – for disruptive discipline problems, send their PARENTS to jail (if they aren’t already there)!
mountain man
September 11th, 2012
12:16 pm
I’m sorry – correction – PARENT. I accidentally made it plural.
Ashley
September 11th, 2012
12:46 pm
When I was in school we were taught, school is just a stepping stone for life in the real world and there are rules that must be follow. The commentary says minorities are being suspended for non-violent infraction. The solution is quite simple, don’t skip school and you won’t be suspended, adhered to the dress-code and you won’t be suspended, use appropriate language and you won’t be suspended and finally be respectful and recognize the teacher is in charge and you won’t get suspended. If this happen in the real world how long do you think one would be employed. When does the student take responsibility for his or her behavior, enough of the race card it has been beaten to death. We should worry more about the students who are there to learn, they suffer when the classroom is being held hostage by unruly students as well.
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
September 11th, 2012
12:46 pm
I knew this was a bogus report designed to keep these students in school and force the school to change its emphasis consistent with California Tomorrow’s work. I described that here http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/self-efficacy-cultural-proficiency-training-critical-reflection-and-change-agency-development/
It also pertains to what is being called Meaningful School Involvement. It’s not academic but the students are basically community organized through the school with grievances primed for action.
Thanks Maureen because I had not paid attention to who produced the study. The Civil Rights Project at UCLA is Gary Oldfield and I have been tracking his work as the metro districts like Atlanta and Dallas which never had metro wide busing or Charlotte which did and then wanted to return to neighborhood schools are getting the Great City Schools model perfected by Bev Hall at APS foisted on them to prevent solid academics in any suburb.
We really do see brothers Gary and Myron’s visions for America coming together in this Regional Equity Movement. All Georgians should be familiar with it as it is basically run through the Environmental Justice Center at Clark Atlanta. Robert Bullard’s work.
Metro Atlanta is in their sights and has been since the 1979 dismissal of the metrowide busing case. Sure does explain the language in Fulton’s charter and why SACS wanted the Charlotte Meck veterans to come destroy academics in North Fulton. Follow APS and Dekalb into the gutter.
And it will happen unless more parents and taxpayers actually read that duplicitous charter and recognize what is about to be done to their children and with their tax dollars.
I call it Mind Arson for a reason.
Principal Skinner
September 11th, 2012
12:50 pm
There are no programs that make as much of a difference as having a father in the home. As long as the illegitimate rate among African Americans is 75%+, there will be absolutely no change in the disruptive behavior in schools
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
September 11th, 2012
12:53 pm
The Civil Rights Project is also where Jeannie Oakes was for years before moving to Ford in November 2009 to link their education efforts to their regional equity work. Parents know Oakes from all her work declaring ability grouping to be unacceptable. Except she never had any support for her position except horror from others who also believed in the social interaction classroom.
Now with this study the socially disruptive and the brightest students and the slower students will all be together. Interacting among diverse backgrounds as the new goal of American education. Which is the real reason they cannot be suspended. Everyone must be present as a representative of their assigned cultural heritage.
bootney farnsworth
September 11th, 2012
12:53 pm
did the civil rights project bother to check and see if these kids were actually causing trouble?
Beverly Fraud
September 11th, 2012
1:00 pm
UCLA study lead author Daniel J. Losen said some districts agree and are reducing suspension rates, citing the 84,000-student Baltimore City Schools, which, under CEO Andres Alonso, went from 26,000 suspensions in 2003-2004 to 10,000 six years later.
Yes and as a result Baltimore City teachers report that behavior is so exemplary they often feel as if though they have walked into a room of Tibetan monks practicing peaceful purposefulness, instead of an inner city classroom.
But of course.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 11th, 2012
1:02 pm
I agree with the posters who lay some responsiblity at the feet of parents, but the fact is that blaming parents doesn’t solve the issue. The solutions, as far as how schools deal with it inside the school environment during the school day, are complex, but I’ll simplify them for the sake of discussion.
There is in this country a tremendous disconnect between school personnel, who are middle-class people that share similar values (regardless of race or ethnicity) and expect certain behaviors, and many (sometimes most, depending on the district’s demographics) families. The sad fact is that children frequently come to school without having been taught the behavioral norms that teachers expect them to conform to. This is the crux of the dilemma.
The dilemma inside the schoolhouse is exacerbated by two realities: (1) administrators generally do not enforce the disciplinary code with sufficient consistency, and (2) teachers generally do not take sufficient time to establish classroom processes & procedures and then TEACH THEM, reteaching from time to time if necessary, to the kids.
There are some teachers who are able to reach every student, or nearly every student, no matter how poorly behaved or uncooperative some students are for other teachers in the same school building. This fact is evidence that teachers do in fact have the capability of dealing with problem students without constantly kicking them out of class or resorting to shipping them all off to alternative schools.
Alternative education is designed for children who truly cannot cope with a traditional classroom environment due to emotional/behavioral disorders, severe abuse that has impacted their ability to be in an environment with large numbers of other kids, or other substantially limiting factors. It is not designed to be a warehouse to contain all the potential disruptiveness that makes a regular education classrom challenging to manage. There are many, many strategies that many regular education teachers could use to handle chronic minor disruptions, but they simply won’t–they’d rather send the kid somewhere else. That’s a huge problem in public education. Administrators have to understand this and HELP those teachers learn how to manage their classrooms more effectively, not just send the disrupters back and give the teachers no support. But until most administrators are themselves accomplished teachers who knew how to manage challenging students effectively in the classroom, don’t look for it to happen on a large scale. You can’t teach someone else what you don’t know yourself.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 11th, 2012
1:04 pm
(I have, by the way, been assaulted by a student at school, as an administrator. Never as a teacher.)
Beverly Fraud
September 11th, 2012
1:06 pm
Well, well, well, look at what Dana the former Mouth Organ at DOE says about the Maryland proposals to reduce out of school suspensions:
We have serious concerns about a policy that would limit out-of-school suspensions to only the most serious, violent offenses,” said Dana Tofig, a Montgomery spokesman. “Some offenses, while not violent by definition, can create an unsafe, even threatening, environment for the staff and students of a school. It is important to remember … there are victims that deserve to have their rights protected. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work.”
Why do I get the feeling he found THAT more palatable than anything Kathy Cox asked him to say about “cut scores” on the CRCT? Perhaps because there is a certain TRUTHFULNESS to the above statement that didn’t exist in the discussion on cut scores?
John Zelner
September 11th, 2012
1:06 pm
No! We are pushing students in the School-To-Prison Pipeline by telling them they all need to get HOPE and go to college. We need to ensure Georgia’s new career pathways are allowed to work and not stifled by the academics that want all students to be pushed to college
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
September 11th, 2012
1:07 pm
Bootney-all the better if they are since disrupting the transmission of knowledge is the purpose of the “standards for teaching and learning” and as President Obama has now announced several times, including in last week’s acceptance, that the real purpose for what is being sold as the Common Core.
http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/didnt-the-president-just-admit-ccssi-was-a-ruse-to-change-classroom-interactions/ is the post I wrote to describe the significance of what he admitted and what Best Practice really means and how it really does go back to the work he did with Bill Ayers in Chicago.
IIRC you are with the USG at Perimeter College. Part of the Common Core assault on all education, P-20, has to do with reorganizing higher ed away from the transmission of knowledge. Apparently USG announced it reorganizing consistent with Lumina’s Diploma Qualifications Profile back in November 2011.
They are going to destroy everything that works in the USG and destroy the validity of anyone’s degree if all of this is not understood accurately and soon. Giving SACS more power as the Ga legislature has done merely makes the problem worse because they are a primary source of the cultural poison. I call them the enforcer for John Dewey’s vision of using education to push a political, economic, and social transformation of the US. Stealthily because the schemers do via changing mindsets and at our expense.
Unfortunately the Reconstructionist vision is what drives too many district supers and principals and the accreditors today. And hardly anyone seems to know. It’s about to be too late.
bootney farnsworth
September 11th, 2012
1:08 pm
as someone who was more than a little familiar with the discipline system of public education…
yes, there were times when I was called down for things I didn’t do. but usually, I had done them. it was a reasonable suspicion, considering my history.
I set a school record (way back when, mind you) for detentions, suspension, and paddlings and still somehow managing to pass to the next grade. I did a lot of sweeping floors, cleaning chalkboards, ect as well.
I never, ever, got a punishment I hadn’t earned. there were a few which I thought were questionable (detention for standing up to a bully teacher), but I did step outside the rules.
the pranks, the fighting, the backtalking, the cutting class, leaving in the middle of class, all of the above – I did them. nobody forced me. God knows my parents stood behind the school, and tanned my hide good- even into high school. but I did them.
for the VAST MAJORITY of kids who are punished by the system, they did something to provoke it.
I never, ever, sat in detention with a kid who hadn’t crossed the line.
was it a thin line? a stupid line? a pointless, brain dead administrator line? very often. but the line did exist.
I have no problem with students standing their ground when the know the teacher is wrong. doesn’t mean they can skate without punishment, however.
bootney farnsworth
September 11th, 2012
1:09 pm
in the filter? really?
for that?
bootney farnsworth
September 11th, 2012
1:12 pm
@ attentive
actually I’m not with GPC anymore.
I was one of 282 sacrificial lambs the system offered up to save as many middle unnecessary middle management positions as possible.
Mortimer Collins
September 11th, 2012
1:13 pm
Dr. Monica Henson
September 11th, 2012
1:02 pm
Thanks for the “simplification” and attempted brainwashing.
NEXT!
bootney farnsworth
September 11th, 2012
1:13 pm
@ maureen
if my comment stays stuck in the filter, can you email me as to why?
Recent Graduate
September 11th, 2012
1:15 pm
Why not go back to the old system of having a conduct grade? If you mouth off, your grade gets lowered, but you stay in class. Conduct grade should be calculated into the GPA, and there should be opportunities for raising it (perhaps volunteering or going a certain amount of time without another infraction).
AdoptiveParent
September 11th, 2012
1:15 pm
MountainMan @ 1215 PM
I’m an adoptive parent that was willing to take in a young troubled teenager into my home to try and give him a better life. Are you going to throw me in jail when he misbehaves? I bet that will do wonders for the people like me willing to try and make a difference.
People need to stop being so narrowminded.
Beverly Fraud
September 11th, 2012
1:18 pm
“There are many, many strategies that many regular education teachers could use to handle chronic minor disruptions”
Yes there are. But at what point do we ADMIT to ourselves that the child who behaves is losing out because of the time, effort, and energy it takes to “handle” the chronic disrupter?
Doesn’t the child who “chronically” makes good behavior choices ALSO have the right to be taught in “the least restrictive environment”?
Tony
September 11th, 2012
1:24 pm
Kids need classrooms that are safe and free of disruptions if we want the best learning environments. The premise of this article seems to be that schools aren’t doing enough to keep the disruptive kids in school. For us to be effective in both of these ideals we must have the resources (translated money) to do so. Without funding, we cannot provide both.
The Educator's Room
September 11th, 2012
1:29 pm
The problem here is that parents no longer hold their children accountable for misbehaving! So now the schools have to. There has to be a smarter way to discipline the students!
Don't Tread
September 11th, 2012
1:38 pm
Today’s USA Today “snapshot” says that 40% of kids in this country are now born out of wedlock.
Coincidence? I don’t think so.
There is too much “California parenting” going on and no third party “solution” will fix it. People need to grow some morals, but we all know that won’t happen.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 11th, 2012
1:42 pm
Beverly Fraud posted “at what point do we ADMIT to ourselves that the child who behaves is losing out because of the time, effort, and energy it takes to “handle” the chronic disrupter?”
I am of the firm conviction that if EVERY teacher of that student reports the same behaviors occurring consistently, then it makes sense to look at a removal option.
How do you explain the phenomenon of the so-called chronic troublemaker who has one or more classes where s/he is working on grade level without disrupting others? Those are the majority of disruptive kids I’ve worked with in traditional schools–about 80% of “chronic” troublemakers behave that way with some teachers but not others. That’s not a kid problem–it’s a teacher problem.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 11th, 2012
1:43 pm
And, if I don’t do everything I can to help the teachers who are not coping effectively, then it’s an administrator problem as well. But removing the problem student doesn’t help the struggling teachers improve.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
September 11th, 2012
2:01 pm
Reproductive irresponsibility, not stupid and effete PubEd disciplinary policies, is the prime cause of the full “school-to-prison pipeline.”
Teacher, Too
September 11th, 2012
2:10 pm
Some students, with their parents’ blessing, CHOOSE to misbehave in some teachers’ classrooms. It is deliberate- I know as this happened to me last year. In the parent conference, with an administrator present, the mother told her daughter to “just put up with her” (me, the teacher) for the rest of the year. All the while, she was stroking her daughter’s hair and petting her like a little puppy. It didn’t matter that her daughter was causing enormous disruption in class. The parent was incredibly rude, and it’s no surprise that the daughter was incredibly rude.
No strategy that I tried was going to work– this student was going to behave however she wanted. I had to write her up on a behavior referral several times. It was a relief on the other students in the class and me when she decided to put her head down and do nothing or if she was absent.
Funny that I did not have behavior problems in any of my other classes. Sometimes, it’s NOT the teacher. Sometimes, it IS the choice of the student to misbehave in certain teachers’ classrooms.
Teacher, Too
September 11th, 2012
2:14 pm
By the way, when I discussed this with my administrator, I was marked down on my evaluation. I was punished because I sought out the help in dealing with a behavior problem.
old teacher
September 11th, 2012
2:15 pm
Here is a good example of an alternative school incident
http://www.macon.com/2012/09/10/2170855/bibb-county-student-cut-on-cheek.html#wgt=rcntnews
C Jae of EAV
September 11th, 2012
2:16 pm
@Mortimer Collins – It would seem that “Zero Tolerance” polices place a high degree of discretion into the hands of school adminstrators. While I would believe such policies have their place, many adminstrators apply them in a short sighted mannner than only serves to speed a students entry into the criminal justice system. No knocking “Zero Tolerance” approaches just suggesting that professional development is in order such that adminstrators understand how to effectively wield the authority they hold rather simply react in a cookie cutter manner with limited forethought. All that to say IMHO, there are some policies that lean in the direction of pushing kids toward the criminal justice system explictly or implictly.
@Teacher & Mom – Here’s my experience with alternative schools (particularly those outsourced to the dreded for-profit mgmt companies who also bid to run start-up charter schools), they stunt academic growth and become dumping grounds for local districts seekings to improve their test scores. In short I’m hestiant to push for more “alternative schools” absent a close examination of what’s already on the landscape and what value they add to local districts.
Beverly Fraud
September 11th, 2012
2:25 pm
“How do you explain the phenomenon of the so-called chronic troublemaker who has one or more classes where s/he is working on grade level without disrupting others?”
Well the easy answer, is bad classroom management. But there could be other reasons. Perhaps they like the subject matter better. Perhaps the teacher reminds them of the next door neighbor who used to bring the child chocolate chip cookies. Now when entire CLASSES go south the minute they step into Mrs. Jones room, good chance it IS Mrs. Jones.
Still, the one thing I think works against the child’s best interests is to indicate to Mrs. Jones “Well, Johnny Disrupter behaves in Mrs. Smith’s room, must be your fault he misbehaves in yours.”
I don’t think we should ever send a message to a child that you get to PICK and CHOOSE which class to behave in.
ATL Parent
September 11th, 2012
2:30 pm
As I read this article, I leaned toward Dove’s side by addressing the undelying problem. First let me say that there need to be some strict discipline guidelines in place and enforced. No more slaps on the wrist. Because those that are being slapped are now society’s nightmares. If any of the schools or systems reported their stats correctly you will see that this is across racial, gender and economic lines. So we can stop the racial calls now. Some children are raised entitled, disrespectul and by dysfunctional adults. They need to be dealt with. Children today are so entitled and most have problems beyond what any of us faced growing up. But, a trip to the woodshed never hurt me or any of my 9 siblings either.
Teachers are not social workers nor punching dummy’s but they do see the problem first hand. They see the kids who come with all the gadgets along with the ‘not my child’ parents. They see the young mom of the teen who is still trying to be young and not the adult or parent. They also see the hungry ones, the ones without proper clothing, the abused. But, teachers have to go through the administration which nine times out of ten hands out slaps on the wrist and does not deal with the problem. Academic counselors are not equipped always to deal with these kids. Adminisrtation, both in school and at the central office, need to formulate plans. Suspending them and then allowing them back in school without an agressive plan to change their behavior and get on track with their studies is failing. Alternative schools, where they come and go without supervision, lack of discipline, no plan to change, are another failing source.
If the administration put a plan in effect that would stifle the parents wages or put them in jail, then the outcry would be for a change in discipline.
Former Truant
September 11th, 2012
2:32 pm
In High School I was very depressed and would skip school often. When caught by the school the solution was to suspend me. My Mother said no way, how is this teaching him anything. He doesn’t want to be here so you punish his truancy by encouraging it. I was forced to go to in-school suspension and got some help for my other issues and eventually got my act together in school, did much better in college and have a great life and career now. The school working with me led to this not just suspending me, find the problem and give the kids some help. Getting them out of the way doesn’t accomplish your mission of educating the next generation, it just makes it easy not right. Many kids just need some guidance and a chance, I know I did.
Beverly Fraud
September 11th, 2012
2:43 pm
Question for Ms. Dove. Is student discipline better in places where teachers (anonymously to protect against retaliation) self report that there is full administrative support in matters of discipline?
If so, why not promote policies that lead to teachers self reporting full administrative support in matters of discipline? That is if you REALLY want to avoid the so-called “School to prison pipeline.”
Or can we not do this because that supports the teacher, instead of BLAMES the teacher?
what's best for kids???
September 11th, 2012
3:20 pm
Do away with compulsory schooling and the problem will solve itself.
what's best for kids???
September 11th, 2012
3:20 pm
Do away with compulsory schooling, and the problem will solve itself.
Bob
September 11th, 2012
3:22 pm
Mountain Man, you can enforce compliance WITHOUT throwing out the child for each and every little offense. That is what suspension is, throwing children out of school for something may or may not be entirely they fault. Class segregation, as they call it now, works. Move them to a class that is much more structured. I remember classmates in high school that finished their years in “in school suspension” as we called it, which was actually more like in-school boot camp. These kids could not learn any other way. They needed the seemingly overbearing structure and discipline to just to focus on their studies.
Another Math Teacher
September 11th, 2012
3:27 pm
Ms. Henson: “How do you explain the phenomenon of the so-called chronic troublemaker who has one or more classes where s/he is working on grade level without disrupting others?”
They enjoy the class and they are on grade level? They were socially promoted to the point they come into a class 5 years behind and take it out on the class?
Ms. Henson: “That’s not a kid problem–it’s a teacher problem.”
Actually, it’s an administration problem. Changing of grades and socially promoting them until they have no chance to catch up. Then they misbehave in the class that they were socially promoted while behaving in other classes. Being an administrator, you already knew that.
WoodstockMom
September 11th, 2012
3:45 pm
A few commenters have suggested that single parent situations are to blame for behavioral issues. How bout you guys come play daddy with the troubled kids? Maybe mentor? How about throwing a ball around or an afternoon fishing trip? Most troubled kids are looking for someone to RELATE to, might as well be you since you guys have all of the answers to thier problems from everything I have read on this thread.
Troubled kids need help, and someone to talk to. Just because they’re acting out now – doesnt mean we need to fast forward thier lives to the future and immaturely judge that they will become inmates. Lets not throw away the key just yet..
williebkind
September 11th, 2012
3:51 pm
Another Math Teacher
September 11th, 2012
3:27 pm
That is how you get 20 year old football/basketball/baseball players! Then they get a scholarship to a college even if it is a small college. Then they become teachers.
Proud Teacher
September 11th, 2012
3:56 pm
I agree with so much of what is written here about suspensions and civil rights, but what about the children who are the victims of the disruptions in their education caused by unruly students? There can never be just one answer because there is more than one cause for these disruptions. However, the general behavior of all students has certainly become more crass, rude, and inappropriate than it should be in a classroom. The “I, me, my, mine” mentality seems to rule the actions of too many.
I have also had many students who were on probabtion and required to attend school by the court. Very few attended with an improved attitude. Most of the time, the attendance was perfunctory and the behavior was not at all penitent. So, once again, who really pays the price of school disruption?
Mountain Man
September 11th, 2012
4:03 pm
“Actually, it’s an administration problem. Changing of grades and socially promoting them until they have no chance to catch up.”
Thank you, Another Math Teacher! Finally, someone who sees and tells the truth!
Clem
September 11th, 2012
4:06 pm
Just send the good kids to the “alternative” school and leave the rest in the regular school. I doubt there would be a problem with space at the alternative facilities in most districts around Atlanta.
Georgia Coach
September 11th, 2012
4:43 pm
Dr. Henson is, as usual, 100% correct. Many times there is more of a crisis in class management rather than a problem with students. Most students are manageable if the teacher has a good bag of tricks (strategies) to facilitate positive behavior. If you have a principal with a spine, then the really difficult students can usually be managed, too.
As a 20 year veteran teacher and current principal, I would say the ability to engage students solves much of the problem.
lisa
September 11th, 2012
4:54 pm
School rules catered towards least common denominator – those that don’t want to be there anyway! The ones that suffer are children who genuinely appreciate school but get caught up in the bull-nonsense! My son was always straight A student but got suspended for having t-shirt longer than his fingertips – SERIOUSLY?! I’m still trying to figure out how removing a straight A student from school for nonsense is beneficial. He soon HATED high school and is consistently on President’s list in college. Oh, and he no longer wears t-shirts! GO FIGURE. I HATE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IT IS NOT BENEFICIAL FOR BLACK MALE STUDENTS. THEY ARE CONSTANTLY TARGETED AND EMASCULATED! …explains the increase in the gay black male population.
another comment
September 11th, 2012
5:25 pm
The problem is in the whole word that a certain section of these children and a certain type of music made it about the word “disrespect”. I told my 17 year old that she is still a child, and to shut up and stop using that word, stop making claims that she is being “disrespected”. All it and the anger that she was whipping her self into over where going to end her self up in jail or prison. Is that what she wanted with her life. She was acting like a “Ghetto Girl”. We are not “Ghetto”, we are not “Trailer trash”. No one can “disrespect” you. You have to let things go or you are going to live with anger, and violence. That is why their is so much unnecessary violence and killing all over some ridiculous theme that this under 30 generation has come up with that someone is “Disrespecting” them. I have tried to tell her that is life. You have to love your self, ignore the words and actions of others. You are beautiful, you are smart, people are always jealeous. They always have to put someone down to make them feel as though they are better.
The ones that have played into this teenage “angst” the most have been the over promoted minority admistrators. Is it because they have not been exposed to the good liberal arts education at the finer universities? Is it that they are the second rate school graduates?
Just at Campbell High School alone, the former Supt. Pulls the white Principal who the Black, Latino and White Students and parents alike loved. Puts in Grant Rivera, the fake Hispanic, who the Hispanic kids laugh at when he can’t speak in Spanish correctly, and insists on saying the announcements himself even though the Hispanic Baseball Pitcher volunteers. The first day he comes in and announces that anyone out of dress policy will have to wear the school issued sweat pants he has purchased ( with school funds). Then mostly girls are targeted as Grant goes beyond Cobb County policy, and says that girl skirts or shorts must be at or below the knee. Yet boys with sagging pants meerly grab them when they see and administrator. I sent him an e-mail would you really prefer that our girls just wear a burka, your policy seems that way. My self and other parents asked him why don’t you just issue a uniform policy, as we know from past experience and friends whose Students go to Woodward, Marist, St. Puis, ect. the students actually enjoy wearing their uniforms and it is alot less expensive. He also did away with all the cultural events, the Latino festival, all the pep rallies. Basically he drained the life out of the school. Then he was violating the the fire code by locking students in as soon as school was over, while they were at practice and tutoring, by ordering teachers to pad lock and chain fire doors. Then he tried to protect the Marietta AP son with the Rape Charge by keeping it quite. Finally after two awful years, firing the best teachers only to bring on his pets from his last school. The school only made AYP after Summer School ( what a joke). Now the folks at Westlake in Fulton County are dealing with him and the rampant violance at his school.
Then you thought it couldn’t get it worse, and Olde Fred, while a dead beat Supt. promote’s Dr. Iris Denise Magee the former failing Campbell Middle School principal to be the High School Principal. She brings along one of her Sister’s with her Ms. Kristlee ?( a large dark black woman with a whistle around her neck). These two numbsculls decide to reduce the change time between classes from 7 minutes to 5 minutes. Then after Christmas break in Febrary. They decide to do hall sweeps and enforce the 5 minutes change time. It was already impossible to get from one end of the 2200 student spread out school to the other. In 4 years my child has never used her looker or been able to use the restroom. There is simply no time during the time change. The ridiculous AP would be out blowing her whistle like they were in kindergarten. Then they send home that anyone caught late changing classes would be required to serve Saturday in school suspension the following Saturday. They had rounded up over 200 kids the first day, these included IB kids. Guess what was Scheduled for the that Saturday, the SAT. I went in to talk to Denise with the mail order Ed doctorate, since she won’t claim her college on the school site, it must be mail order. She says I didn’t know that. I said how didn’t you know that, your school is one of the testing sites for the SAT and for the ACT. As I am talking to her AP whistle blower walks buy me, with the whistle around her neck. I said don’t even think of giving my daughter a citation for being late for class and sentancing her to Saturday School, because she has a heart problem. You would not want her to pass out and die running to class now would you. I also reminded her that my daughter had a 504 on file with this and other medical condition. I had also told her the kids were all upset about getting the Saturday School, because if they didn’t show up they were then going to get 3 -10 day of out of school suspension and this would screw them up on getting into college. They had were also bringing in drug dogs too. Complete over kill. There were pages and pages of complaints on the Vinings Patch. It appears that Hinjosa gave her a couple of options. But one thing is for sure, the Sister with the Whistle is gone, gone , gone! The 5 min. change of periods has been moved back up to 7 minutes. All of the Assistant Principals are White. I think that Hinjosa realizes that you must hire on merit, not the color of ones skin or their Soriety or Fraternity. Unfortunately, Denise Magee still can not speak proinper English and avoids answering parents questions in meetings, no matter what race the parent is. So hopefully she will be in Hinjosa’s next round of bad Principal’s to go.
Old Physics Teacher
September 11th, 2012
5:30 pm
OK, let’s get race off the table. You’re making improper associations. The simple fact is: Correlation does not imply causation! As the number of churches increase, the number of violent crime increases. Those are simple, easily-proved FACTS! You guys would then predict that churches cause violent crime and we then need to get rid of churches, right? No, you wouldn’t. You would fight to your dying breath that crime is higher in cities with more churches. Unfortunately, it’s true! However, there is a direct correlation between number of churches and number of violent crime. The crime numbers are higher because larger cities have more crime than smaller cities. Larger cities have more churches than smaller cities. It has nothing to do with churches. It is the same with discipline. It has NOTHING to do with race; it has to do with the kids coming from a poor household.
The reason that more minorities are suspended is because more minorities are raised by single parents. Single parents have less time to raise children. Daycare facilities help raise kids. They don’t do a good job of parenting; therefore, the children do not know how to respond to supervisory adults properly (Child: “you’re not the boss of me!” Teacher: “YES! I AM!! Go to the office!). It is more proper to say, “More poor children get disciplined than rich, or middle-class children.”
You want to fix poor? Good luck with that one!
Really amazed
September 11th, 2012
6:05 pm
Seriously??? Everyone know s NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND means not child left out of school long enough that is causing problems!
bu2
September 11th, 2012
6:06 pm
Suspension is a reward for bad behavior. It should be extremely rare to have out of school suspension. It should be reserved for the worst cases, such as violence. Schools should make an effort to reach all the kids, not just the easy ones.
And in-school suspension shouldn’t be based on zero tolerance policies. That’s just a sign that the administrators lack critical thinking skills, i.e. they are the product of an education from teachers like them. You shouldn’t be quick to mix the kids who mess up (being late, etc.) with the kids who are serious discipline problems. There are districts that are real quick to send minor problems to alternative schools.
Teachers need classroom management skills, especially at the lower age groups. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be a skill taught in college. The new teachers pick it up on the job or fail.