Suspension as a Last Resort with all the Exceptions
It seems like when we suspend students it does not have the intended outcome: reforming the behavior. Students look at it like a vacation from school rather than a punitive consequence. The same students are often the ones getting in trouble, and often for the same issue over and over again. In looking at options other than suspension, the Department of Education website offers a multitude of options for programs to get help for and educate students. They encourage schools to put in multi-tiered support systems and offer suspension as a last resort.
I have seen amazing programs on my campus, and I hope that the students who need these programs are the ones that are listening, and yet the drugs, the fights, the suspension-able offenses are still happening everyday.
At a previous school I worked at, a student got in a fight or got caught with drugs and they were sent to an alternative learning center for 30 days. They did their school work while they were there. We seemed to have less of these incidents because the students knew the consequences. Would something like this work where I am now? I don't know, but I do know something has to change because the number of suspensions is too high.
Are more programs the answer? Different ones? I know we have new social emotional supports in place. Are we reaching the right students? These are questions I ask. I don't have all the answers, but I am asking the questions. I know the people in my building are looking into it. They want to do right by our students.
Right now their is a bill in the California Senate, "that would eliminate suspensions for defying teachers and school staff or disrupting school activities — known as “willful defiance” suspensions — for all public school students by Fall 2024" (Tadayon) Nancy Skinner, who introduced the bill, stated, “SB 274 puts the needs of students first...Instead of kicking them out of school, we owe it to students to figure out what’s causing them to act out and help them fix it." This is the key. Help them fix it. Figure it out.
As a future administrator, I know how important it is to know my community, to find the programs and the people who can help my population.
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