After talking to many parents during the primary campaign trail it became obvious to me that most all of them (regardless of party affiliation) just want their kids to get a high-quality education. One thing we should all be able to agree on is that when kids don’t go to school their education suffers dramatically. Many of our students are still suffering from the severe learning loss they endured during the COVID-19 pandemic, when we closed our schools and naively thought that learning could still occur virtually.
Obviously, there are times when a student’s behavior becomes disruptive and hampers the learning of other students. In those instances, it is imperative to remove that student from their normal classroom until their behavior can improve. However, that doesn’t mean we should send that student home on an out-of-school suspension. When at home they will experience severe learning loss and fall further behind in their studies. When they do return to their classroom, they will feel more lost and are more likely simply to repeat their previous disruptive behavior.
I believe in-school-suspensions (ISS) programs are a far more effective means of dealing with student disciplinary problems. A well-staffed and maintained ISS program allows students to continue to learn while they are waiting to return to their normal classrooms. Out-of-school suspensions should only be utilized in the most extreme cases.
At the March 12, 2024, school board meeting I addressed the need to totally rehaul our school district’s suspension policy and called for an all-day workshop to address the issues at-hand.
