Suspension rate can be deceiving

Earlier this week, the Maryland State Department of Education released its annual report on suspension rates by county. The topic of school suspension has been in the news several times recently, including the recent suspension of multiple students at South River for fighting. In Patch’s recent poll, it seems many readers feel that student misbehavior is causing the rate in suspensions to be so high.

But let’s step back for a few minutes. First, it is important to note that the 8.2 percent suspension rate this year is the lowest rate that Anne Arundel County has had since 1999. In fact, the rate has been steadily decreasing since 2004, according to Maryland State Department of Education statistics.

So let’s put this in perspective. Our system’s performance scores are increasing and our suspension rates are decreasing. These are both good, right? Now don’t get me wrong, suspending 8.2 percent of our students (and if you look at the data, this is excluding repeat offenders—if a student is suspended 14 times over a year, he or she only counts as one suspension) is pretty high. In an ideal world, this number would be zero. But in that same world, every student would learn in the same way and every home situation would be like the Cleavers. But this isn’t reality.

Coming from a classroom teacher’s perspective (and my views are certainly not inclusive of all classroom teachers, just my humble opinion based on several years of experience), suspensions are inevitable. As classrooms get more and more crowded and our world changes, kids are going to act out. Part of adolescence (and growing up in general) is testing boundaries. Sometimes, kids do silly things like choose not to bring home their homework, just to see what happens. And sometimes, they do something more serious. Kids fight. Kids say hurtful things to their peers. Kids do things that adults recognize as bad ideas. They are, after all, kids. There’s a learning curve here.

School is supposed to prepare our kids for the real world. And in the real world, adults (hopefully) know better than to throw a punch or steal a coworker’s lunch money. If they don’t and they’re caught, there are consequences. Are there times where adults are falsely accused of something and suffer consequences? Are there times when an adult is suspended or fired for something that not everyone agrees with? Sure.

And the same holds true for kids and suspensions. There are going to be times that suspensions aren’t cut and dry. There are going to be times where a suspension doesn’t make the impact that we hope it does. But, the majority of times, we hope that a suspension eliminates the issue from the classroom setting so that the rest of the class can learn, and we hope that it also makes a lasting impression with a child that will discourage him or her from repeating the same behavior. It doesn’t always. Nothing is a cure-all. But I’d love to hear what readers propose as an alternative.