January 28, 2015
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Suspension for mouthing off to a teacher? For refusing to take a seat? For standing up for one’s beliefs? This may sound unheard of to the reserved community of Diamond Bar, but it’s become a real problem especially for the minorites in some California school districts.
In order to counteract this, Assembly Bill 420 was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown and prohibited school administrators from expelling students on the basis of “willful defiance.” Although in some districts the bill is geared toward the benefit of black and Latino students, the primary concern is with disciplinary action for defiant students. But even the actions taken in this bill are not enough; administrators must also be prohibited from suspending and not just expelling students for willful defiance, as suspensions prove to be just as destructive.
In SFUSD, African American and Latino students account for 77 percent of suspensions, according to district data received from Public Council. Of these, they make up 81 percent of suspensions for willful defiance.
There’s a reason why these statistics are geared so much toward minority groups. With a term as ambiguous as “willful defiance,” it’s no surprise that this has been used in biased, often racially charged, premises. The only thing that results from a suspension for such a trivial crime is a period of inactivity away from schools that students often regard as mini-vacations, which are spent in leisure while grades gradually begin to slip. Let’s face it; unless it’s for a serious wrongdoing, suspensions end up as lose-lose situations for the student. There’s nothing remedial about it. When one is put out of the classroom even once for an extended period of time, the likelihood of dropping out of school is doubled, according to the Civil Rights Project by UCLA.
The opponents of this cause complain that students who would normally be convicted of defiance are now being let off the hook, so that they may continue to disturb the classroom. But, the law never states that defiant students cannot be punished; it simply protects them from suspension and expulsion. Students will still be called to administrators’ offices and receive proportionate consequences for their actions, perhaps detention or a referral slip.
It’s true that the students suspended for willful defiance are often repeat offenders who have no intention to learn. However, that’s where the responsibilities of schools come in. Our so-called “institutions of learning” are obligated to provide students with the motivation needed to sit through school and study. Schools need to deal with this at the roots, through intervention and counseling and not hope to suppress apathetic, defiant attitudes toward school.
Administrators have finally realized just how destructive suspensions and expulsions can be to students, and with AB420, they’re righting their wrongs. It’s time to start proactively supporting students through their education rather than stopping them in their tracks and leaving them in the dust for everything they do wrong.
Being suspended or expelled from school is a serious matter. To be suspended from school, one must take drastic action, such as threatening a teacher or student, bringing a weapon to school, possessing or selling drugs, and, until recently, disobeying school officials. Refusing to work and disrupting other students’ learning ability is definitely an offense that merits suspension or even expulsion from school.
This new law implemented on Jan. 1, limits suspensions of children in third grade or below and expulsions of students in fourth grade and above. The reason stated is to keep children in school, and according to Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, any student expe lled or suspended from school has double the likelihood of dropping out of school. The law is aimed primarily at African American and Latino minority groups, who have suspension rates “disproportionate to their population in school,” according to CBS News.
What the lawmakers fail to realize is that the probability that students who have been suspended or expelled might drop out may not be correlated with the punishment itself but rather with the student’s mindset. A student that talks back to a teacher or refuses to do work obviously shows that he or she does not have any academic aspirations.
Another aspect overlooked by the state government is that the students who are suspended or expelled are not learning in school anyway. By not doing work, disrupting class, and defying the teacher, the students show that they do not want to learn; by allowing these troublemakers to stay in school, a school is harming the instruction of other students in the classroom. The state argues that students who are suspended receive less education but fails to realize that by their own choices, these students are trying not to learn, harming other would-be learners in the process.
A third detail that is detrimental to the state’s case is the fact that suspensions and expulsions tend to correct behavior. Studies indicate that a majority of students who are suspended or expelled are never suspended or expelled again. Anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of students are not suspended or expelled again. This data proves that suspension helps to change the mindset of students, making them less likely to disrupt class or rebel again. By showing students that disrupting class and defying the teacher will not result in substantial punishment, a school indicates that rebellion and refusal to complete class and homework is tolerable, and students will repeat the same actions.
While the need to lower suspension and expulsion rates is high and important, a school must be more concerned with the welfare of the majority of students instead of one or two troublemakers. By refusing to suspend or expel disruptive and defiant students, a school harms more than just one student. The school harms all the classmates of that one student, who are unable to learn while the teacher is dealing with the trouble. In order to supply students with the most education they can, schools must be allowed.
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