Oh boy, I'm really relieved to find out that it's only 9000 kids out of 48000 -- so only about 20% of the population gets suspended every year...
Michael, look at the suburban schools' statistics -- do you really think that the percentage of genetically damaged city kids is that much higher? To what do you attribute this higher percentage? Are you sure you're not arguing that race is a factor after all? Audrey, please, for every horror story you have about evil out of control children, I can cite you a horror story of overreaction -- which I will only mention one -- where a very sweet, shy, 2nd grade girl brought a paring knife from home in her lunch bag to cut up the apple she brought - certainly grounds for a weapons charge. If her mom hadn't been an educated woman willing to fight the school, who knows how long she would have had to stay home? Part of the point is, what are these suspensions really about, what categories are they in, why are there so very many of them, and how much good does it do? I know that if there is a fight, even if a kid was picked on and didn't start it, but either had to fight back or get creamed, both kids get sent home. So the bully gets to stay home and watch TV and the poor kid he picked on is sometimes more of a nerd type and is totally freaked out by being sent home, in addition to feeling totally vulnerable because obviously the adults can't handle the bully either. My question is, what other options are there to keep kids in school? We know the budgets suck -- anyway, many of us think so -- but the district still has to do something. I liked the idea someone raised about having parents and interns help by staffing a detention room. I personally think that for all its talk about parent involvement, the Minneapolis Public Schools do not really use parents well because they don't trust us. But that's a whole other discussion... diane wiley powderhorn _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
