Suspension rates have dropped sharply over the past few years in many area schools, but not because of a profusion of angelic adolescents.
Instead, superintendents have signed on to the idea that kids behaving badly only turn worse when forced out, and often see suspension as a reward. The goal, educators say, should be to keep them in class.
But suspension-reducing policies have meant at best devoting time and resources to in-school discipline, and at worst more disruptive and dangerous hallways and classrooms.
“Teachers at various points have not felt supported when they have rebellious children in the classroom,” said a Montgomery County school employee who asked that her name be withheld because of the district’s sensitivity about the topic.
Montgomery has seen its suspension rate cut in half since new efforts were put in place several years ago, from 9,194 suspensions in 2006-07 to 4,503 in 2008-09, according to central office figures. The district had been in a state of “corrective action” from the Maryland State Department of Education for its disproportionate numbers of special education students receiving suspensions.
For teachers, “it is a matter of getting over hurdles in terms of dealing with students in more positive and productive ways. And it is not something that has happened instantaneously,” the Montgomery employee said, adding that the decrease has resulted from far fewer suspensions issued for insubordination or classroom disruption.
At Alexandria’s George Washington Middle School, suspensions dropped to 126 last year from 439 in 2005-06, even as enrollment hovered around 1,000 students. As a whole, the 11,000-student district has seen a drop to 1,113 suspensions, from 1,765.
On Friday morning, however, about 60 George Washington parents turned out for a PTA meeting to discuss with administrators a recent rash of fights and bullying on campus.
“How do we, as pacifist parents, toe the line with discipline?” said mother Kelly Cox after the meeting. The harsher punishments she experienced as a child aren’t ideal, she said, “but kids did behave better when there were tough consequences.”
Gerald Mann, one of two principals at George Washington, defended the school’s efforts.
“It has forced us, as administrators, to be more creative with solutions for dealing with misbehaving kids,” Mann said, including Saturday school or lunchtime detentions. “If you’re not in education, you might automatically think that suspensions are the answer, but often they’re not.”
Ron Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center, said that trends over the past 20 years have moved away from kicking kids out partly because of changes to the law requiring more accountability for each student.
“A principal I work with put it well,” Stephens said. “He said of a student, ‘I don’t want you in my school and you don’t want to come, but the law says otherwise.’ ”
The region’s greatest challenge has been in D.C. Public Schools, where a recent think tank report uncovered 3,500 emergency calls to the D.C. police during the 2007-08 school year.
But cutting back on suspensions has been a key focus of Chancellor Michelle Rhee, and resources have been funneled toward that end. Under the staffing model she is phasing in at each school, “respect rooms” are available for students acting out to talk with a counselor about their issues.
“It’s where kids can go to cool down, where they’ll have someone to talk to and work things out before going back to class,” Rhee said, adding that suspensions have been cut in half this year from the first month of school last year.
But the effort hasn’t been without cost elsewhere. Of the 388 school employees fired Friday, including 229 teachers, none came from the respect rooms.
