Out-of-School Suspensions and the School-To-Prison Pipeline

Out-of-School Suspensions and the School-To-Prison Pipeline

Out-of-School Suspensions and the School-To-Prison Pipeline

On September 23rd, Seattle Public schools issues a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions for elementary school students with further plans to reduce out-of-school suspensions for all grades. The many reasons for the moratorium include a “starve the [school-to]-prison pipeline at its source,” according to one school board member, “closing the achievement gap”, as mentioned by another and “creating a sense of belonging in a positive school climate.”

“(The moratorium) will make it harder for teachers to run orderly classrooms that benefit the well-behaved kids and for principals to run orderly schools of the kind that parents crave so that their children can have learning environments that are both safe and learning-centered. It basically signals to teachers and administrators that misbehaving, disruptive kids must be ‘kept in class’ (or at least in school, which is often the same thing as in class) until they slug someone. The overall long-term effect will be less learning.”-Chester E. Finn, United States Assistant Secretary of Education

The Seattle Times has reported in several of its Education Lab stories this past school year, skewed suspension rates echo persistent gaps in academic performance between blacks and other student groups. Further, out-of-school suspension has negative effects on both suspended and non-suspended students.

Of course, the media and the school district is making this moratorium about the racial divide citing students responding to suspensions as “unequal treatment” and a “lack of support”. While the Office of Civil Rights shows that over 3 million students are suspended or expelled from schools every year and black students are three times more likely than white students to face suspension and expulsion there is no concrete evidence that suspension from school is the root cause of their future criminal records.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we take a trip to New York City where charter schools suspend more, not fewer, students, because they believe discipline is the first step to learning (New York Post).

“We think suspension is not the only tool, but it’s one of the ways in which we can work with families and ensure that we have an orderly, safe school.”-Ann Powell, spokesman for Success Academy Charter Schools

Marc Epstein,retired dean of Jamaica High School in Queens, notes:

“The thing that destroys a school is insubordination. It makes it impossible for teacher to run a classroom. If you ask a kid to be quiet and he tells you to shut the f— up . . . and then a dean comes in and takes him out for two minutes and brings him back, and he does the same thing. You can’t run a classroom like that.”

In the meantime, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a new discipline code this year, entitled the “Citywide Behavioral Expectations to Support Student Learning“, a proposal CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, Eva Moskowitz does not agree with:

“If student A ‘impacts’ student B with a fist, they shouldn’t ‘dialogue as equals.’ Student A should be disciplined. Proponents of lax discipline claim it would benefit minority students, who are suspended at higher rates than their white peers. But minority students are also the most likely to suffer the adverse consequences of lax discipline — that is, their education is disrupted by a chaotic school environment or by violence.”

Moskowitz cites a recent incident at a New York City elementary school where eighth graders were organizing a “fight club” for first graders and beat up those who chose not to participate:

When I was growing up, suspensions happened. I also had to embarrassingly stand with my nose against the wall reciting the rosary (fond Catholic school memories there.) We were smacked with a ruler and we stayed after school on detention and wrote essays on “character”, “responsibility” and “hard work.” Nowadays, we need to be “fair” to students who don’t follow the rules? We need to “respect” them (even though they don’t respect authority figures?)And we blame these suspensions on the racial divide? Way to segment in an environment that should be “all inclusive”, administrators! The question is, leaving race completely out of this equation, who really is on the losing end of suspension-free schools? Is it the student who was “profiled” in an “unfair” fashion or is it the children who may be having to sit through and experience the bad behavior of the would-be-suspended mid science lesson? Is it “fair” for the students who want to be in school, who want to focus on their education and who have virtually no behavioral problems to speak of to sit through an episode with an unruly child who is not taught discipline and boundaries? The argument could be made that an out-of-school suspension does a child no benefit if his or her home life has no structure or discipline he or she has no respect for his or her elders in the home. And, what comes to play with the anti-bullying dialogue so prevalent in our educational organizations if the bully isn’t brought to some form of justice? Is it “fair” for another parent to see their child bullied day in and day out because we need to coddle the feelings of the antagonists? And what happens, in some cases where school is the only form of structure and discipline that a pupil may have because their home life may include ambivalent or inept role models? No respect for teachers? No respect for the principal? No consequences?Of course the student with the behavior problems will respect the “gun free zone” poster! While out-of-school suspensions may not be the ultimate solution for all disciplinary problems from elementary to high school students, there is something for sure clogged in the educational pipeline.

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