KALEIDOSCOPE

Yes!  I am a teacher.  Yes!  I write referrals for disruptive behaviors.  Yes!  My student’s sometimes receive an out of school suspension.  I do believe, however, that there are more productive, learning experiences to use as discipline than suspending a student.

Nowadays, a suspension gives a student a vacation.  In many cases, the parent of a suspended student is not home; thus, the student has no supervision and in many cases, spends the day sleeping in, playing video games, chatting on the computer, and texting friends who are actually in school.  Although the student misses school, he is still allowed to make up any and all missed work.  The real kicker, however, is the kid who has a job and the employer says something like the following: “Since you can’t go to school today, why don’t you come into work.”  Doesn’t sound like punishment to me. 

Thirty years ago, suspension meant that the student missed school AND the assignments and/or tests that happened that day, Mom and Dad had discipline “chores” they expected done for no pay, and no employer in his right mind would award the errant student with hours at work.

Discipline measures need to be revised.  Rather than remove the student from the school, I suggest that they be given work detail.  Rather than be allowed to make up work, I suggest that they forfeit the points for those assignments and tests.  Rather than being called in to work and earn money, I suggest that employers implement an eligibility check much like is expected for high school athletes: the student must be present in school, must behave in school, and must earn grades of at least a “C”. 

For many teens, the work place working hand in hand with the school would equal motivation since a job equals money for their car, insurance, and dates.