In-School Suspension

(a) This study examines out-of-school suspensions in the 9th grade and their effect on high school and post-secondary outcomes. This analyses also examines demographic disparities in school suspensions, their relationship to poverty and their contribution to high school graduation and post-secondary attainment gaps.

It was just a big misunderstanding. The teasing had been going on for months, but you tried to hold in your anger as best as possible. When they decided to come up to you again, you were already having a bad day. It felt like you were a ticking time bomb about to explode and each word they said to you was making the timer count down faster. Once you finally blew up, you lost control of yourself because the anger was clouding your mind. It wasn’t all your fault, but all the blame was put on you and the others got away with it. A substantial amount of schools have been using the practice of suspension to punish the student who has misbehaved or violated the schools rules. Suspension hasn’t been showing much positive outcomes on the students who got it. Although some cases are that students are threatening deadly outcomes with their behavior, all the others are simples complications that can be dealt with peacefully and if held correctly, the problem won’t come up again. If schools are quick to suspend anyone even if it’s a small infraction, they are most likely to drop out of school, keep

With a mission statement such as this, why would a school district continue to implement discipline to the students that harms the educational process? The answer is bureaucracy. School districts are a bureaucracy and they want to remain in power. Administrators, board members, and trustees stick together in hopes to preserve the bureaucracy. Regardless, out of school suspension is shown to be ineffective at remedying an insubordination student, used unfairly against minorities, and harmful to a student’s learning (Blomberg).

The procedures and laws that protect students from arbitration and wrongful discipline are important, for schools to discipline disruptive and dangerous students (Arum & Preiss 2009, para. 1).

Out of school suspensions (OSS) are often enforced with the assumption that students receiving the suspension are less likely to repeat the problem behavior in the future. However, this has been proven to be false. Suspending a student for engaging in a certain behavior does not in fact serve as a deterrent from the behavior but as a deterrent from attending school instead. In actuality, receiving just a single suspension can increase the probability of a student experiencing academic failure, school dropout, and involvement in the juvenile justice system. Knowing this, some educators still believe that for many students, suspension can serve as an effective lesson. One of the greatest concerns that educators and administrators face is the matter of classroom management. It is part of their job to ensure a safe, productive and supportive classroom allowing students to learn and grow to their greatest potential. Though there are several strategies gauged towards managing a classroom, the most severe offences often lead to either in or out of school suspension. Some of the largest concerns faced with out of school suspensions is that they are often ineptly applied, used unfairly against students of color and seemingly ineffective at producing better behavior. Also known as exclusionary discipline, the majority of offenses that led to OSS have not been centered around violence but instead emphasised issues of classroom insubordination and defiance. In some rather extreme cases

Often times it’s the student’s needs and the school being unable to meet the student’s needs that lead to the student being disciplined. Kids who are behind academically, and unable to perform at the same level as their peers often act out in frustration or humiliation (Noguera, 2003). Once these students are labelled as difficult, incorrigible, and unteachable they tend to believe these things about themselves and act out more in class which leads to a cycle of discipline that can ultimately lead to permanent expulsion. For some of these students, these continued rule violations lead to run-ins with the police and the criminal justice system. School administrators who are at times frustrated themselves from failed attempts to steer children from a “bad path” don’t realize that in throwing their hands up and giving up on these students, are in a way helping shuttle students from school to the penitentiary (Noguera, 2003).

Issues: (1) Was it unconstitutional for the administrators to suspend the students from school for their disruptive behaviors? (2) Did the administrators violate the students’ Fourteenth Amendment rights by failing to provide each student a hearing or parent notification?

Studies have also found a correlation between exclusionary discipline and (1) increased school avoidance, (2) decreased academic engagement, (3) an increased rate of dropouts, (4) increased behavioral problems, and (5) increased involvement with the juvenile justice system. School administrators have the right to want to develop a safe climate for their students and teachers and remove threats from their schools. However, serious threats from students are rare. Nearly 60 percent of the suspensions and expulsions administered in HPS in 2009-2010 were administered for school policy violations—a category that includes things like insubordination, profanity, sleeping in class, and truancy—not serious safety concerns like violence against others or weapons.

The following discussion of practice and policy related issues found within the article puritan to a “qualitative” study “conducted in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota metropolitan area from September 2009 to May 2012” (Gibson & Haight, 2013, p.264). The main objective of the study was to evaluate the “culturally nuanced” definitions and perceptions on out-of-school suspensions; In hopes of discovering new ways in which “schools and families can work together to decrease racial disparities in out-of-school suspensions” (Gibson & Haight, 2013, p. 263). Thirty participants were interviewed within their own homes through “in-depth, individual, and audiotaped interviews.” (Gibson & Haight, 2013, p. 263). In reviewing the study interviews, a few practice-related issues were discussed, concerning educators lack of understanding of cultural diversity among their students, as well as school personnel 's failure to fully listen to each individual 's concerns when addressing discipline issues.

According to news reports, three teachers and an assistant principal in this district participated in activities that ranged from physically hurting students, cursing in front of students, and abusing paid leave time. Each of the employees involved was suspended for 30 days. Overall, the actions that the administrator and teachers partook in negatively impacted students and showed little regard for upholding the professionalism of education.

Thousands of students each year worry about whether or not they will get into college and a suspension will most likely harm those chances. Suspension gets put on a student’s permanent disciplinary record and will follow him to every school he goes. Honors students can also become victims of strict zero-tolerance policies, even for minor infractions. A mark of bad conduct can easily mar a perfect GPA or test score. Everything a student has worked for can go to waste in the blink of an eye with a suspension slip. At the Sojourner Truth Academy in New Orleans, school officials suspended a group of teenage girls for singing too loudly in the cafeteria (Carr). The November 2011 incident left seniors wondering why they could not have received a lesser punishment like detention. Students are learning their lessons of misbehaving at too high a price. They gain an infamous record and lose valuable class time. Some schools do not allow suspended students to make up the work they missed, and students will go on without the grade and without learning the material. However, not all students view suspension as a bad thing, believing it to be a glorified extra school holiday. Children can slack off and grades begin to drop with more suspensions. If zero-tolerance policies are supposed to help and protect a student, then they are not working. These strict guidelines are not helping students be

Even though punitive approaches to discipline issues have proven to be ineffective, and even counterproductive, many educators and school districts still maintain a zero tolerance policy. It is crucial for the school administration and the educators to ensure that for both general education students and those who suffer disabilities, better discipline strategies and practices be instituted. These methods ensure the safety, dignity, and integrity of the student, the school community, and the learning environment. Moreover, they also address the causes of the misconduct, which improves long term outcomes and positive behavioral skills.

The zero tolerance policy has no place in the school system because it has damaged students academically by being directly related to the dropout rate, discriminating against the minority groups, and stripping away students right to privacy and speech. As shown in this article, many students have been affected by this policy. The zero tolerance policy neglects to address the students who are struggling in school. If a student is suspended from school, their is a likely chance he or she will not receive academic help after the fact. This may cause students to become unmotivated and dropout. Furthermore, many of the other complaints about this policy is it is unfair to the minority groups and the students with learning disabilities because they

Student behavior and discipline in the classroom have been impacted by legislation and litigation as was discussed in an article written by Mitchell Yell and Michael Rozalski, The Impact of Legislation and Litigation on Disciple and Student Behavior in the Classroom. The authors believe that all students should receive their education in safe, orderly, and well-disciplined schools but maintaining these environments has become a major challenge for educators (Yell, M & Rozalski, M, 2008). Most states have laws that govern discipline in schools which also protect the rights of students in public education (Yell, et.al, 2008). These state laws control the actions of school officials when they carry out certain discipline-related functions, such as gathering evidence (e.g., searching students, their lockers, or their personal property), seizing contraband from students’ backpacks, or conducting any administrative actions that restrict a student’s property interest to attend school (e.g., suspension, expulsion) (Yell, et.al, 2008). A student’s entitlement under state law to a public education is

School discipline is to ensure that students and the campus staff are safe and peaceful. According to the U.S. Department of Education on Rethinking Discipline (2017), “Teachers and students deserve school environments that are safe, supportive, and conducive to teaching and learning.” The idea is to decrease bad behavior and school violence which will lead to fewer suspensions and expulsions. There are rules and limitations when it comes to student discipline; there are acts in which students can and must be disciplined. For examples, if a student quality’s for special needs some different guidelines protect them under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s (IDEA). Furthermore, the Education Code, Section 48900 was implied to discipline students who committed any wrongful doing such as attempting or threatening to physical harm another person. In the case f any wrongfulness, the student is forced to be disciplined by being suspended or expulsed from school.