Suspend the Troublemakers


Focus should be on the good students

By Kelvin Wade | | June 11, 2008 16:43

School is out and summer indulgence is here. But lately, I've been spending time looking at 2006-07 school district suspension rates. I was surprised that my middle school, Grange, has a nearly 23 percent suspension rate for violence and/or drugs. Armijo, my alma mater, has a 14 percent rate. How are we going to improve this next school year? Or do we have to?

Unfortunately, I have a little experience with suspensions. I was in Mr. Gaut's 7th grade science class at Grange. We were supposed to be doing something involving microscopes but I was busy playing with this big fat red rubber band. It suddenly popped out of my hands and hit a classmate in the eye.

Now this was an accident, and I immediately apologized but I was still suspended for it.

Perhaps my reputation as a wiseguy didn't help me in this case.

I used to complain to anyone who would listen that my suspension wasn't fair, that it had been an accident, and I was treated too harshly. I also told people that Mr. Gaut was a moron but that's neither here nor there.

My second involuntary three-day vacation occurred in the 10th grade. I was routinely late to Ms. Keys' creative writing class at Armijo. I loved the class but she and I never got along. And since her class was right after lunch, I showed up when I showed up. She gave me detention. I cut detention and Assistant Principal Gary Falati suspended me.

Afterwards I complained that it was personal, that Ms. Keys didn't like me so she gave me detentions.

But the truth is, when I was playing around with that rubber band in my 7th grade science class, I could've blinded that boy. And I never would've been in a position to be suspended if I hadn't been fooling around in class. Without my reckless behavior, it would not have occurred.

If I hadn't been late for class and cut detention in the 10th grade, I wouldn't have been suspended. It doesn't matter if there was a personality clash between the teacher and me, it was my irresponsible behavior that caused my suspension.

So when I hear parents complaining about their kids' suspensions, the first thing I think is that the student and their parents have to own up to their behavior.

In the aftermath of the recent racial incident at Rodriguez High, some African-American parents took issue with what they saw as disparate treatment of black and white students. This isn't the first time these complaints have been leveled at the district.

I don't have a problem if African-Americans are suspended more than other groups if black students comprise most of the knuckleheads. If that's the way it shakes out, then that's the way it shakes out.

Now if black students are suspended when white students are given detention for the same infraction, that shouldn't happen. The focus should be on the infraction and the offenders and no other factor need come into play.

While watching high-achieving area students being honored during a recent City Council meeting, it occurred to me that way too much time, energy and resources are directed to disruptive students and not on students like these. In that light, if our suspension rates have to climb even higher in order to make classrooms conducive to learning, than so be it. Peace.

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NOTES: I was one of those knuckleheads at times when I was in school. What disruptive students do is unfair to the kids who are there to learn. We give the problem students a lot of attention. It may be negative attention but it's attention and resources that aren't going behind the students who are trying hard.

I received a response from a member of the school board.

Mr. Wade:
I very much appreciated the points you brought across in your June 12 DR
article on focusing on the good students of our community. We have many
students in our district who really do care about getting a good
education, who are active in our community and who make wise choices
when it comes to peer pressures.

Thank you for reminding me that as a Board member (and a citizen of this
community) I must be cognizant not only of the students who make up the
numbers of suspensions in our district, but also those who do not.

We are reviewing the data at hand regarding suspenion/expulsion rates at
our school sites over the recent years in hopes of developing/improving
ways for our teachers to better handle behavioral issues in the
classroom. Hopefully this will benfit the "good" students as well as the
"potentially good" students in the upcoming school year.

Thanks for your candor and your interest in our students!

Pat Shamansky, FSUSD Governing Board



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