Anyone ever heard of kids getting removed from a school for bullying in elementary?

[Anonymous]

I've been hearing/watching about problems with the same group of kids for the past couple of years at our school. Has anyone ever heard of a kid being removed from a public charter for persistently bad behavior or do they just get shuffled on through?

[Anonymous]

lol nope

[Anonymous]

Our school has moved kids from one homeroom to another because of it.

I've also seen them put in an aide (maybe not a 1:1 but a person who just coincidentally happens to be often sitting near), and I've seen them do detentions (they don't call it that lol) and suspensions. But an actual on-the-books expulsion is rare because parents tend to read the writing on the wall and switch schools.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes they send them to a different school to a tougher principal.

[Anonymous]

Well, bullying is one category of bad behavior, but there are other types of bad behavior too. I don't think I've ever seen a kid formally expelled or pressured to exit for behavior that was limited only to bullying. But of course, this is private information and as an outsider, I don't actually know what was going on, what was done or said that I'm unaware of. So it's hard to answer the question.

I have seen kids be suspended and ultimately leave the school, sometimes to a special needs placement, for behavior that *included* bullying but also included a general lack of impulse control, disabilitiies related to emotional regulation, mental health conditions, etc. Because those are the kinds of things that will support DCPS paying for a more costly setting. Just bullying alone isn't enough.

[Anonymous]

Charter schools can only expel students under very limited circumstances. They are public schools, paid to serve all students -- they don't get to expel the difficult ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Charter schools can only expel students under very limited circumstances. They are public schools, paid to serve all students -- they don't get to expel the difficult ones.

This. It's a city law with a whole process and then there's a right to appeal. And it takes a long time. This is why actual official expulsions seldom happen-- it's a whole big project, and it's common for the kid to change schools (or graduate from the school) before the process is complete.

https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/laws/22-157#:~:text=%22(c)%20No%20student%2C,be%20unenrolled%20from%20a%20local

[Anonymous]

Nope. And there aren’t any other consequences either. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

There have been elementary school expulsions but very few. OSSE produces an annual discipline report. For school year 2023-24, there were 65 expulsions. 63% were high school, 33% were middle school and the remaining 4% were K-5.

More often than expulsion are non-public placements for students with disabilities that include severe (violent) behavioral issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There have been elementary school expulsions but very few. OSSE produces an annual discipline report. For school year 2023-24, there were 65 expulsions. 63% were high school, 33% were middle school and the remaining 4% were K-5.

More often than expulsion are non-public placements for students with disabilities that include severe (violent) behavioral issues.

Of course, it's a little muddy because 4th, 5th, and 6th can be considered middle or elementary depending on the school.

I would think the K-5 category is mostly 4th and 5th graders, it's rare for a younger child to be expelled. More likely given a different setting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There have been elementary school expulsions but very few. OSSE produces an annual discipline report. For school year 2023-24, there were 65 expulsions. 63% were high school, 33% were middle school and the remaining 4% were K-5.

More often than expulsion are non-public placements for students with disabilities that include severe (violent) behavioral issues.

Of course, it's a little muddy because 4th, 5th, and 6th can be considered middle or elementary depending on the school.

I would think the K-5 category is mostly 4th and 5th graders, it's rare for a younger child to be expelled. More likely given a different setting.

The OSSE report breaks K-5 into K-2 and 3-5. There are expulsions in the K-2 grades based on the chart in the OSSE report but very few.

[Anonymous]

No. Unless the student brings a knife or gun to school. Then they can be sent to an interim placement for 45 days.

My oldest had a really good experience at our neighborhood public school. I only had great things to say about it.

His younger brother who is three grades below had a vastly different experience. There was a really, really aggressive and destructive kid where classrooms had to be evacuated. Then another kid who had complete meltdowns and while not aggressive would cry loudly and crawl under desks, refuse to leave a classroom or runout. Then a bunch of milder but significant behavior problems. Mean girl bullying issue and a couple other issues.

The teachers dreaded getting this cohort and it was so obvious they didn’t enjoy teaching as much as when they had my older son’s cohort. The cohort thay followed the dreaded cohort I heard were also delightful. A few issues here and there but nothing like the dreaded one.

I realized nothing was going to change midway through second grade. My son hated school, he hated seeing his teacher and friends attacked, he had a rock thrown at his head that cut him, he had things stolen from him, and he was barely learning anything. He was becoming moody and irritable.

In January I took him to tour a Catholic school even though we aren’t Catholic thinking I would enroll him the following year in third grade. He was shocked when he visited the Catholic school classroom. When we left he kept commenting that everyone looked so nice and listened to the teacher. He begged me to switch him right away and said he never wanted to go back to the public school. Luckily they had a spot for him right away and he never did go back. He was in total shock the first month there. His mood changed and he was no longer irritable or moody. He loved going to school. everyday he came home and commented how much quieter the class was and no one got attacked or had there things stolen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Unless the student brings a knife or gun to school. Then they can be sent to an interim placement for 45 days.

My oldest had a really good experience at our neighborhood public school. I only had great things to say about it.

His younger brother who is three grades below had a vastly different experience. There was a really, really aggressive and destructive kid where classrooms had to be evacuated. Then another kid who had complete meltdowns and while not aggressive would cry loudly and crawl under desks, refuse to leave a classroom or runout. Then a bunch of milder but significant behavior problems. Mean girl bullying issue and a couple other issues.

The teachers dreaded getting this cohort and it was so obvious they didn’t enjoy teaching as much as when they had my older son’s cohort. The cohort thay followed the dreaded cohort I heard were also delightful. A few issues here and there but nothing like the dreaded one.

I realized nothing was going to change midway through second grade. My son hated school, he hated seeing his teacher and friends attacked, he had a rock thrown at his head that cut him, he had things stolen from him, and he was barely learning anything. He was becoming moody and irritable.

In January I took him to tour a Catholic school even though we aren’t Catholic thinking I would enroll him the following year in third grade. He was shocked when he visited the Catholic school classroom. When we left he kept commenting that everyone looked so nice and listened to the teacher. He begged me to switch him right away and said he never wanted to go back to the public school. Luckily they had a spot for him right away and he never did go back. He was in total shock the first month there. His mood changed and he was no longer irritable or moody. He loved going to school. everyday he came home and commented how much quieter the class was and no one got attacked or had there things stolen.

+1

We also moved our little one to Catholic school. He was more likely to be entertained by the foolishness and occasional chaos at his prior HRCS than disturbed but it —— but that was all the more reason to move him!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been hearing/watching about problems with the same group of kids for the past couple of years at our school. Has anyone ever heard of a kid being removed from a public charter for persistently bad behavior or do they just get shuffled on through?

Yes. A kid was moved out of my kids' charter school to a more appropriate setting (special needs private school) when he became violent towards other students in 6th grade. He had been disruptive and had been having a hard time behaviorally for two years already at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Unless the student brings a knife or gun to school. Then they can be sent to an interim placement for 45 days.

My oldest had a really good experience at our neighborhood public school. I only had great things to say about it.

His younger brother who is three grades below had a vastly different experience. There was a really, really aggressive and destructive kid where classrooms had to be evacuated. Then another kid who had complete meltdowns and while not aggressive would cry loudly and crawl under desks, refuse to leave a classroom or runout. Then a bunch of milder but significant behavior problems. Mean girl bullying issue and a couple other issues.

The teachers dreaded getting this cohort and it was so obvious they didn’t enjoy teaching as much as when they had my older son’s cohort. The cohort thay followed the dreaded cohort I heard were also delightful. A few issues here and there but nothing like the dreaded one.

I realized nothing was going to change midway through second grade. My son hated school, he hated seeing his teacher and friends attacked, he had a rock thrown at his head that cut him, he had things stolen from him, and he was barely learning anything. He was becoming moody and irritable.

In January I took him to tour a Catholic school even though we aren’t Catholic thinking I would enroll him the following year in third grade. He was shocked when he visited the Catholic school classroom. When we left he kept commenting that everyone looked so nice and listened to the teacher. He begged me to switch him right away and said he never wanted to go back to the public school. Luckily they had a spot for him right away and he never did go back. He was in total shock the first month there. His mood changed and he was no longer irritable or moody. He loved going to school. everyday he came home and commented how much quieter the class was and no one got attacked or had there things stolen.

It’s terrible that kids have to experience violence and fear of other kids at school. I, too, went to Catholic schools though my family is not Catholic because of chaotic/violent pUblic options. A shame kids are still experiencing this today.