Suspensions

We can't suspend if students skip detentions, start fights, bring concealed weapons to schools, and basically every other negative behavior.

We just can't suspend.

I'm not saying that all of my students need to be suspended or that they all deserve to be suspended, but I feel that there should be some non-negotiable acts that should lead to a suspension.  Starting a fight in the classroom should be a non-negotiable act.  Not suspending those students just gives the message that starting a fight in the classroom is completely okay and that nothing will happen to you if you do decide to fight someone in the classroom.  Ridiculous right?  Well it happens.  Right here.

Why suspension? Because it forces that parents to do something about their kids.  It forces them to put the pressure on their kids to fix their behavior at school.  If we send a student home the parent then has to figure out how they are going to come pick up their child and who they are going to have to leave their child with. Now the consequence of the negative behavior of the child is put on both that child and the parent. That's, I have noticed, how things get done.

But we can't suspend.  Why?  Well it affects our attendance.  If we don't have a 95% or higher attendance rate then we don't get our full points in our rating.  So we don't suspend kids.  So kids keep acting out, starting fights, skipping detentions, nothing happens, and nothing changes.

So I have started a new policy.  You act up in my class, you go to the principal's office and he can deal with you.  Does that not make sense?  Not having suspensions is a problem.  So how do we fix the problem?  We make it someone else's problem.  Someone else who has the power to make changes.

Let's see how long it takes for people to realize that teaching the students is far important than the attendance rate of a school.

-Ms. P