No one has mentioned that while the Stribe wrote one story on this, the Pioneer Press had a four (?) part, in depth, series on it. Let's not be too parochial and ignore information from the other side of the river! (esp. when the Stribe wants to put its resources into covering Olivia.)
The PP articles did indicate there were tradeoffs, like trying to manage/salvage the disruptive child vs. trying to ensure that the other 20 kids in the room have a safe and education-conducive school environment. The teacher quoted wanted to be able to teach: "To me the suspension is effective because the rest of the children are able to function." A Univ of Minn lecturer worries about the feelings of the disruptive child: "suspending children sends a powerful message that you don't belong." The articles suggest that we have a hyper-serious problem if we have significant numbers of kids who have not been trained or socialized or civilized enough by their parents to sufficiently self-control their behaviors. Joe Soucheray in a column related to the series suggested we better start building more jails. Congrats to the Pioneer Press on a great series. More of us should read it. go soon to http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/ and search on "suspensions" Alan Shilepsky Downtown http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/living/education/3210266.htm Posted on Tue, May. 07, 2002 Suspending very young can harm more than help BY PAUL TOSTO Pioneer Press When a kindergartener walked into St. Paul's Hayden Heights Elementary School last year clutching a bag holding her grandfather's loaded handgun, the discipline decision was easy. State law requires that any child who brings a gun to school face expulsion. Most of the incidents triggering suspensions for the state's youngest learners, however, are rarely that clear cut. Minnesota public schools reported nearly 4,000 suspensions of kindergarteners, first- and second-graders during the past two years. Disorderly conduct, fighting and "other major offenses" were the main reasons those children, most 5 to 8 years old, were put out of school, state and local data show. Others were suspended for "defiance," "persistent lack of cooperation" and "indecent exposure." They were typically removed for one to three days. Mental health experts and psychologists say that although children need consequences for misbehavior, little good comes from suspending children so young. LaVonne Carlson, a lecturer in early childhood education at the University of Minnesota, calls out-of-school suspension "extremely inappropriate. The punishment really doesn't teach a whole lot. It can produce anger. It can produce fear. It can also teach kids not to get caught." Teachers, though, say even the smallest kids come to school these days with rougher edges sharpened by toxic media and home lives that often teach the wrong way to settle scores. They say that suspension is a last resort but that for some students, there is no other choice. "The 99 percent of the kids that are making good choices and are at school to learn and cooperating with teachers, it is beneficial to them when (misbehaving) children are removed and those other children do not have to put up with the behavior and the language," says Janet Kujat, a kindergarten teacher at North Star Community School in Minneapolis. "To me the suspension is effective because the rest of the children are able to function," she says. "We all deserve to be treated with respect and taught in an environment that is safe and free of pollution of any kind." North Star, a K-5 school with a high rate of students living in poverty, suspended 167 kids, or about 22 percent of its student body during last year, including 16 kindergarteners. No public school in Minnesota suspended more kindergarteners. More than 70 percent of all the kindergarten, first- and second-grade suspensions reported to the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning in the past two school years were handed out in the Minneapolis public schools. "Suspending children sends a powerful message that you don't belong," Carlson says. "Five- and 6-year-olds don't understand obscenities, but they do understand reactions. Until you help them choose appropriate behavior, laws aren't going to do anything. It doesn't work that way." She compares it to punishing students for not being ready to read � it's not the kid's fault. While a kindergartener with a gun is shocking, most young children are put out of school for behaviors that aren't crimes and may not be completely under their control if they are learning disabled. "Zero tolerance" for misbehavior also may backfire. A recent report in the Journal of School Health found students in schools with harsh discipline policies report feeling less safe at school than do students in schools with more moderate policies. "It's at a very high cost that we kick a kid out of school, not only academically, but our research shows an increasing risk for a whole set of negative outcomes," says Robert Blum, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Adolescent Health and Development and one of the report's authors. In schools with harsh discipline climates, students are more likely to smoke, be involved with violence, report having been pregnant, a "strong association with every crummy outcome that we can think of," Blum says. Banneker Community School in Minneapolis suspended 42 percent of its students last school year, including 75 children in kindergarten through second grade � the most of any Minnesota school for those grades. "Behavior management" was one of a "constellation of challenges" that led the Minneapolis school board last week to agree to overhaul Banneker. "We have to realize we're working with kids that are in a stage of formation," says Craig Vana, director of special initiatives in Minneapolis. Vana led the district's teaching force the past three years. "They're not always going to make good decisions and I think that sometimes it'd be better if we worked those things out with peer mediations, restorative justice � so there are still consequences for what happened but it's not taking a kid out of the learning process." (Vana's comments came in the fall, before the Banneker decision.) At the same time, he said, teachers confront some awful behavior. The number of early-grade suspensions is "hard for me to see," he says. "But here's what's happening. Think of all the things these young kids are seeing that they shouldn't see. Some of these young kids have seen people murdered and they're coming to our buildings. Some of these kids I bet know more profanity than I ever even imagined." Kujat, a 25-year teacher and North Star veteran, says many of her school's youngest students grow up in poverty, in and out of shelters and angry. Some kindergarteners will curse or crawl under the table and bark like dogs, she says. Some exhibit sexual behaviors and "nothing the adult does makes a difference." Five North Star kindergarteners, she notes, were suspended a total of 43 times. "I would say in the last five years, you can't talk a kid out of something," she says. Once a child has calmed down, you can rationalize or redirect that aggression. But it's getting harder and harder. I've got four (kindergarteners) now where you're always walking on eggshells. You never know what's going to tick them off." Most of her kids are "darling, average, wonderful, smart, love to be at school. But I've been teaching 25 years, managing behavior is becoming harder and harder. It's not like I'm a rookie. You try every strategy in the book." Kujat doesn't believe in-school suspensions work and says that for the hardest cases, out-of-school suspension doesn't improve a student's behavior either. "If you can tell me more that I can do, I will do it. I leave school in tears because you work your buns off." Cordelia Anderson, a violence prevention consultant who helped create the "You're the One Who Can Make the Peace" media campaign in Minnesota, says that alternative forms of discipline are often time-consuming, but that the time spent writing up and documenting a suspension takes a lot of time, too. "You're going against a philosophy that says if things are out of control or if behavior is bad, then the way you need to address it is to get tough. That whole philosophy is really against holding people accountable," says Anderson, who promotes techniques like restorative justice where the misbehaving student, his peers, and adults are brought together to discuss what happened and find ways to make amends. Carlson says even if children learn the wrong lessons at home about conduct and language, schools should be able to teach kids that those behaviors are inappropriate at school. Kujat says teachers feel defeated when they have to send a child home. "You think, 'I'm a good teacher, I'm nationally board certified and this child I can't get to.' "We get criticized when we send them home," she says, her voice choked with emotion. "The society has to say, 'We need to start showing our children what is OK and what is not OK.' 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