12/24/98

Suspending a Student

In every school there are students who purposely defy the rules just to see if adults will enforce them. These students feel a surge of power when adults get flustered and, in the process of giving second chances and trying to be nice, waver on their convictions and back down. These are the students who invariably play their "gotcha" game one time too many and get sent to the next level, down to the office.

At one of the schools where I worked, students who were sent to the office were required to bring a written explanatory note from the teacher and present the note to the assistant principal, the "enforcer." She discussed the situation with the student. For first infractions she required the student to remain in the office for the remainder of the period and sent him or her on to the next class. For second or more serious infractions the student received an after- school detention or a half day or full day in-school suspension. Parent contact occurred in all cases.

After-school detentions were supervised by a regular staff member (on a rotating basis throughout the year). In-school suspensions were served in two small cubicles off the hallway beside the assistant principal's office, a stone's throw away from the guidance office. While serving the suspension the student was expected to study, after he or she wrote an essay about the undesirable behavior and a plan to correct it. Half the essay had to be copied verbatim from a printed script. The other half was to come from the student's own thoughts.

When students took the in-school suspension seriously, the system worked quite well. However, students who came into the guidance offices for other reasons would, out of curiosity, check out who was in trouble and often make comments or get into conversations (or arguments) with them. The assistant principal and counselors, busy with other responsibilities, ignored or were unaware of a brewing problem until it escalated. It just wasn't a workable system, because the students weren't under direct staff supervision. In-school suspension proved to be neither punishing nor remedial. It was more like an in-school holiday!

Yet there was neither an extra room in the school nor money in the budget to hire a professional to provide supervision in a suspension room which would actually be empty much of the time. When in-school suspensions resulted in escalation of unacceptable behavior, the student was sent home.

Any number of unworkable detention/suspension policies exist in schools, because no adults, be they teachers, administrators or parents, want to send students out of the building where they can and often do get into even more trouble. If both parents work, which is often the case, they sometimes allow older children (middle and high school ages) to stay home alone with instructions to alert neighbors or parents by phone or beeper of their needs or whereabouts -- all poor substitutes for direct supervision.

How does the school your children attends respond to uncooperative or rebellious students? From your experience, what school policies work most effectively? If a student is suspended or expelled and you know that student stays home alone, what, if any, responsibility should the school or community take for that student?

Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net.