School Suspensions

[Suza1 (Suzanne Myron)]

In some states, like New York, out of school suspensions are and have been out of control. Yes kids need to be held accountable and strictness is not a bad thing. But kids are out of school for months. If a parent has a job, this puts them at risk of losing it. It’s a way to scare the bejesus out of parents who have kids with special needs, and keep them from asking for help. It puts kids behind. There are schools in some areas that only allow for in-school suspensions. I understand that the states are really in charge of education, but tying funding to keeping kids in school, using restorative justice, and trying to help kids who might have difficult home lives is important. For instance, many bullies are themselves bullied at home. Child neglect and abuse is not being addressed in many communities, which was at its worst during the pandemic. We need to help the economy to help parents who are staying in bad marriages, sure, but we also need to help kids who are helpless in the face of all this. Calling CPS, unless the agencies are committed to helping kids, is not going to help either. These agencies need to also be strictly supervised and it should be insured they are not taking or abusing kids themselves. Again, could funding be tied to this somehow, although that is not my area of expertise? I’m an education lawyer. So I guess I’d like to see both children and adults held responsible for bad behavior but children need help also and putting them out of school for months is abandonment and NOT acting like a parent. In my opinion, in fact, that is the definition of neglect, and schools are supposed to be “in loco parentis”. Hopefully with improvements in the economy we will see family life improve also. I do agree with the other policy about safety in the schools with better trained professionals as well. And of course I agree with getting kids’ mental health better WITHOUT the use of drugs because many antidepressants do cause issues, violent behavior being a side effect for some young men. But that’s a separate topic.