Some mayoral candidates are complaining that schools are suspending students too much. I’m not so sure.
My father wound up a professor of mathematics, but as a child he was sent away to reform school for hitting a classmate who called him a “dirty Jew.” Compare this to three elementary-school students at PS 194 who made a classmate perform oral sex. Their punishments: five days suspension for two of them, 10 days for the third because he’d attacked a girl before.
My father’s teacher would’ve been shocked both by this conduct and by how leniently it was punished. Yet some critics say schools are actually too strict.
At Success Academies, the schools I founded, our suspension rates are higher than average and I’m sure we’ll be criticized for this. For example, Success Academy Harlem 5, has a suspension rate of 14 percent. (That means 14 percent of our kids get suspended at least once during the year.) Located in the same building is a district school, PS 123, whose rate is 9 percent.
In fact, most parents like high standards for student conduct. That’s is one reason they select Success Academies — they think conduct standards are too lax in district schools.
Case in point: The State Education Department reports that in the most recent year for which data is available, 2010-11, PS 123 had 92 violent or disruptive incidents; Success Academy Harlem 5 had one (a theft).
It’s not just about safety. Order and civility are critical ingredients in a positive learning environment. Even something like making fun of another student’s answer in class — a comparatively mild misbehavior — can shut a student down intellectually and emotionally, particularly one with a learning disability.
To be sure, discipline isn’t the whole answer. Educators must also build positive relationships with students, create a warm and nurturing school environment, set clear expectations and work closely with parents to develop individualized behavior plans for children who struggle.
But suspensions also have a place. They’re a school’s version of giving a child a “time out.” By keeping a student out of school for a day or two, they convey to the child, in the simplest and most concrete way possible, that there are minimum standards of conduct for being part of the school community.
It’s also a message to parents that they must share responsibility for their child’s behavior. Teachers can’t be solely responsible for managing children’s conduct; they need support from the home. Many politicians give lip service to supporting teachers — yet would undermine them by depriving them of the tools they need to create a safe learning environment.
Every educator wants a warm, nurturing school environment for the children they serve. That can only happen if both teachers and students feel safe and respected — and suspensions are sometimes necessary to ensure that.
Eva Moskowitz is founder and CEO of the Success Academy Charter Schools.