Have you ever been suspended? Do you know the stress it causes to a student? Have you ever been punished unfairly? Schools everywhere use suspension for their students who severely act up. Although punishing students is necessary, schools should try to understand the student’s reasoning instead of immediately suspending the student. Understanding why the student acted out can help prevent the student from being misunderstood, reduce dropouts, and guide the student to correct their behavior. If we try to understand why the student is acting up, we can prevent the child from being misunderstood. An article by David Bulley describes a situation like this. A student, Cindy, had thrown a lunch tray and several other items at two boys. Bulley …show more content…
The rude whispering had nothing to do with her at all. Yes, the joke was dumb, but the anger from Cindy was based on a self- conscious and fear-based misunderstanding.” Some might say that the student gets off free, but Bulley says that Cindy still had to apologize to the lunch staff, clean up her mess, and write a paper about what she will do if she feels she will “erupt” again. So, if Cindy had gotten a suspension, she would have made an enemy out of the boys and probably done similar things to them in the future. Reducing school suspensions can also reduce dropouts. Brian palmer wrote in an article that suspensions aren't helping the schools either. He noted that Baltimore city schools dramatically reduced suspensions, and their dropout rate was “cut nearly in half”. He also says that students that are suspended are “three times more likely to drop out” While it can sometimes be good to keep a dangerous individual out of school, if we can understand why some students do bad things, we can help prevent other students from going that way in the first place. Therefore, instead of casting the student out like a “bad apple”, we should help the student instead of giving them motivation to hate …show more content…
An article on EdWeek.org by Corey Mitchell says: “Located in every district school, the centers represent a fundamental shift in the approach to student discipline: Students go from having little, or no, say in how they're disciplined to being empowered to assess and correct their own behavior, district CEO Eric Gordon said.
Developed in tandem by a team of district administrators and leaders in the city's teachers' union, they offer students an opportunity to cool down, learn coping strategies, and get back in the classroom as soon as possible.
"You have to trust that when kids are empowered to make better decisions, they will," Gordon said.” By doing this the student understands what they did wrong instead of being forced home with no explanation to their parents. One would suggest that by allowing students to choose their punishments, they would let themselves off easy, but the school would still have to approve the students recommended course of action before it is put into effect. So, by allowing students to understand their offence, they can fix it
They help keep schools and students safe and provide a positive learning environment. This has idea has just been taken too far by school administrators (Wison, 2014). We live in a society where more and more rights have been given to juveniles which have also back fired on us. In days past schools could hand out discipline as well as parents, which in turn could put an end to minor behaviors, where now they are often allowed to advance into things worse, where school administrators see no other choice but to suspend and expel (Wison, 2014). Likewise, we cannot be suspending and expelling students at the drop of a hat because what they did may fall into a gray area, yes there are times when it is needed, but school administrators need to take the time to step back and look at the situation and stop overreacting (Wison, 2014). Suspension and expulsion results in missed classroom time, causing some students to fall so far behind they stop caring about the school work and drop out. Other students are being forced into the criminal justice system ending up with records that can haunt them for life. Eliminating the school-to-prison pipeline will allow these students who are likely to fall into its trap to be able to have a change at a successful life (Wison,
Since we can’t know everything that happens out of class, we need to be able to quickly identify that a student may have been “triggered” by something before, after, or during class, so that the “acting out cycle” can be interrupted early while the behavior is “less-serious.”
A science teacher in Mississippi asked her students to take a picture with their completed DNA Lego model. John Doe took his picture with a smile and a hand gesture in which his thumb, index, and middle finger was raised. This was enough to earn him an indefinite suspension with a recommendation for expulsion because his school administrators believed he flashed a gang sign although he was simply putting up three fingers to represent his football jersey number. (NPR Isensee, 2014). This kind of criminalization of young people contributes to suspension, dropout, and incarceration, and too often pushes students into what is referred to by many education scholars and activists as the “school-to-prison pipeline,” a term that refers to “the policies and practices that push our nation’s schoolchildren, especially our most at-risk children, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems” (ACLU 2013). The School-to-Prison Pipeline is one of the most urgent challenges in education today. This paper will focus on the following circumstances and policies contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline: 1) resource deprived schools, 2) high-stake testing and 3) zero-tolerance discipline policies. However, it is important to note that the school-to-prison pipeline is a broad problem not limited to these three components and has been influenced by historical inequities (segregated education), concentrated poverty, and racial disparities in law enforcement (NAACP, 2005). They have each served to isolate and remove a massive number of people, a disproportionately large percentage of whom are youth of color, from their communities and from participation in civil society (NAACP, 2005). I argue for attention to the school-to-pr...
Another major reason why juveniles are ending up in the juvenile justice system is because many schools have incorporate the zero tolerance policy and other extreme school disciplinary rules. In response to violent incidents in schools, such as the Columbine High School massacre, school disciplinary policies have become increasingly grave. These policies have been enacted at the school, district and state levels with the hopes of ensuring the safety of students and educators. These policies all rely on the zero tolerance policy. While it is understandable that protecting children and teachers is a priority, it is not clear that these strict policies are succeeding in improving the safety in schools.
Zero tolerance policies have resulted in an increasing number of suspensions. “In 2009-10, at least 2,624 secondary schools across the nation suspended 25% of their total student body” (Losen & Martinez 15). Forcing
Teachers no longer have the opportunity to discipline their students in fear of violating the student's rights. Students now dictate how classrooms are instructed. Teachers must be aware of their physical contact and ethical topics that can lead into false allegations. How can a student learn in this environment? Teachers need the ability to discipline students. Evicting the fear of lawsuits from teachers makes for a more productive atmosphere. The classroom is not the only place where safety and responsibility are weakened. Playgrounds have been...
Students’ rights in schools are limited or just taken away. Kids are forced to do whatever the officials at their school, either the principal or the teachers, tell the students to do. One of the main right that gets taken away or limited is students’ first amendment rights, which is the freedom of expression. Students can gets suspended by just doing things the staff at the school does not like, including saying things that they don 't like or supporting a religion that the school does not support. Also, if something is said about the school or the people attending the school is said on social media that student can also get in a lot of trouble. Students should be able to have more first amendment
Schools have had a difficult time trying to balance the best interest of the whole school body. When this policy was put into place they had good intentions. But soon problems were caused. Where they supposed to punish the kids just defending themselves from bullies? Or only punish the one who started it and make it seem like they are taking sides. For example in Delaware a 6 year old boy took a camping utensil which can be used as a knife, fork and spoon to school. Naturally
Suspending students from school sometimes is not the best thing for them. They sometimes need counseling instead. When the school sees an issue with a student it should be addressed right then, instead of waiting to see if anything else comes from it. But not only should schools keep an eye on the students but outsiders also. The best way to do this is through good security measures. Mass Media can cause people to want to follow in others footsteps and this can be an issue for future problems. Is there ever going to be an end to school violence? Probably not but we can do what we can to decrease the occurrences.
Lastly, students have many chores and students are expected to do all their chores, homework, take a bath, and go to sleep on time. With detention in the picture students may be way up over their
By definition, in school suspension is “a program to which a student is assigned because of disruptive behavior for a specific amount of time.” (Effective Program, 156) Many schools that have in school suspension programs have a zero-tolerance policy. This deters bad behavior by having swift and serious consequences for breaking school rules.
The court ruled that since the student had done it from his home computer, and the speech had not caused any disruptions in the school, the student was in no violation. The court ordered the school to allowed the student to get his grades back to where they were prior to his suspension, and he was allowed to put his page back online. In the end, this case has been referred to in many other cases related to off-campus speech. The courts usually state that if a student is not causing any harm or disruptions, they are allowed to express their opinions. This would be different if the speech has threats made against other people or
As a teacher managing problem behavior in your classroom can be one of the most challenging tasks. Behavior problems can range from disruption of lessons to acts of violence against fellow students and teachers. Children’s emotional setbacks and life challenges can also contribute to behavior issues at school. A study done by the Justice Center and the Public Policy Research Institute found that six out of ten students suffered from an “emotional disturbance” and were expelled or suspended between seventh and twelfth grade (Firke, 2011). This same study showed that discipline varied greatly between schools. This report also revealed the urgent need for a more thoughtful technique in school discipline policies. In many cases teachers have exhausted their classroom management strategies without success. Behavior Modification is aimed at improving school and classroom behavior, and can give teachers additional tools to help them to deal proactively and effectively with behaviors that are disruptive to students and teachers in the classroom. When children are disruptive in the classroom it can cause a lot of problems for their classmates and their teacher. Yet, in the long run, it's the disruptive child themselves who is most impacted, on both a social and educational level (Epstein, Atkins, Cullinan, Kutash, & Weaver, 2008). Behavior modification techniques should be used in school, to change the negative behaviors, and increase the positive behaviors seen in these children.
Normal or "good" behavior, usually determined by whether it is socially, culturally and developmentally appropriate. Misbehavior is any improper behavior. Teaching self-control skills is one of the most important things that teachers can do for students because these are the most important skills for success later in life. There are many different underlying causes of misbehavior, but a well-managed classroom has consequences in place to avoid disruption of learning time. Children try to please the teacher, with rules in place, and often reinforced, students will rise to the expectations of the class and their peers. This creates the ideal learning environment for all students.