Thoughts on supsending preschool students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No thoughts on the claims that multiple children in the class have shown disruptive behavior? Sounds like there are classroom management issues going on as well.

Or that this is a preschool in a rough part of DC. For many kids preschool is their first time out of the house and it can really be when disruptive behaviors are shown. There are behaviors that can be managed by a teacher and then those that are so outside the real of classroom management.
As for thoughts about suspending a preschooler. Its tough. It it were impacting my kids preschool education- I would want a more permanent solution than suspension. Support, special education services, and counseling.

Interesting that's the default assumption. The mom in the article indicates the other moms who told her their sons were getting into trouble were white - including one boy who sent another child to the hospital.

[Anonymous]

It is amazing how often teachers or other school staff escalate the problems.

Yes.

They're often overworked and underprepared. Not their fault - I think it's the culture of our entire American workforce and teachers, especially, are forced to walk a high tightrope. It's rather remarkable what we put in their hands and then expect of them, with pay that is way too low and derision too high.

But when your job security depends on miracles impossible to perform, then it's easier to just suspend a kid than find out what's wrong with him.

Especially if it's something the teacher should have caught and dealt with, but didn't.

[Anonymous]

It makes no sense. Suspension is not an effective form of discipline for a 3 year old - I don't see how it is going to teach him anything. And if the kid is so disruptive or dangerous that they shouldn't be with other kids, then how does a temporary suspension help that? It makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

Did no one read the article? The author does not live here. No where does she attribute anything to DCPS. Furthermore - she's talking about pre-school.

Anyway, I googled the woman and she is being touted by Oprah as a new "great voice" etc., etc. I gather she lives somewhere in Omaha.

In any event: black, white, purple, red, orange, or teal green - I think the article was slanted.

She stated over and over that she was AA and posted lots of cute pics of her kids - they are adorable if not hellions.

She stated that she had conversations with "white friends" whose kids had done worse things and had not been suspended but she did not cite schools, etc. where these offenses went without consequence.

She grew up without a father - he was addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Bless her trying to raise her two sons and I am glad she is not doing it alone as her mother did. However I must say, the author of this article has a huge chip on her shoulder. Once again - no matter if your kids are orange, green, purple, red or hot pink - YOU need to take responsibility as a parent and if your children are throwing chairs and spitting at people, they do not deserve to be around others.

Stop trying to be the next Oprah and teach your kids some manners.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps the school is using the suspensions not as a learning piece for the child as much as a wake up call to a parent(s) in denial about a child's behavior as well to start a paper trail so when a special program is advised for the child they will have a pile of backup info to use as support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all of the posters who think that suspension is inappropriate, what would you pose a school do with these children who have serious issues and are a threat to other children and themselves? I would love to see some of you all handle some of these students that are attending these schools and then hear what you have to say. The parents and teachers who generally are against these measures have not worked in these environments or leave shortly afterwards because of behavior issues.

I don't think that suspension should be used regularly, but it should be used if student behavior isn't changed after implementing strategic interventions. Parents should also be required to do more in these classes as well to help support improved behaviors and social interactions with peers.

We have no evidence of any behavioral interventions beside suspension. We have evidence that multiple suspensions have not helped this child. I posted some suggested interventions upthread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did no one read the article? The author does not live here. No where does she attribute anything to DCPS. Furthermore - she's talking about pre-school.

Anyway, I googled the woman and she is being touted by Oprah as a new "great voice" etc., etc. I gather she lives somewhere in Omaha.

In any event: black, white, purple, red, orange, or teal green - I think the article was slanted.

She stated over and over that she was AA and posted lots of cute pics of her kids - they are adorable if not hellions.

She stated that she had conversations with "white friends" whose kids had done worse things and had not been suspended but she did not cite schools, etc. where these offenses went without consequence.

She grew up without a father - he was addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Bless her trying to raise her two sons and I am glad she is not doing it alone as her mother did. However I must say, the author of this article has a huge chip on her shoulder. Once again - no matter if your kids are orange, green, purple, red or hot pink - YOU need to take responsibility as a parent and if your children are throwing chairs and spitting at people, they do not deserve to be around others.

Stop trying to be the next Oprah and teach your kids some manners.

Thank you.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so typical... Black child acts up in school, gets suspended and mother is shocked, upset and plays the race card. A child should not be throwing chairs in school/preschool. If the child is doing this at school, I'm sure he is doing it at home too. Mom is in denial.

Typical of what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did no one read the article? The author does not live here. No where does she attribute anything to DCPS. Furthermore - she's talking about pre-school.

Anyway, I googled the woman and she is being touted by Oprah as a new "great voice" etc., etc. I gather she lives somewhere in Omaha.

In any event: black, white, purple, red, orange, or teal green - I think the article was slanted.

She stated over and over that she was AA and posted lots of cute pics of her kids - they are adorable if not hellions.

She stated that she had conversations with "white friends" whose kids had done worse things and had not been suspended but she did not cite schools, etc. where these offenses went without consequence.

She grew up without a father - he was addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Bless her trying to raise her two sons and I am glad she is not doing it alone as her mother did. However I must say, the author of this article has a huge chip on her shoulder. Once again - no matter if your kids are orange, green, purple, red or hot pink - YOU need to take responsibility as a parent and if your children are throwing chairs and spitting at people, they do not deserve to be around others.

Stop trying to be the next Oprah and teach your kids some manners.

Thank you.

Uh, yes, it was slanted. She's writing about the slant.

Black children represent 18 percent of preschool enrollment but make up 48 percent of preschool children receiving more than one out-of-school suspension, according to the study released by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in March.

There's no way that kids with the cognitive power of a three-year-old have the decision-making faculties to process the consequence of a suspension. Let's take race out of it and consider how we would feel if nearly half of ALL kids were suspended multiple times before they reached kindergarten.

Assigning shame and blame does absolutely nothing to address the fact that something is very wrong with that picture. And, given that you can look at the kids' faces and conclude they are "hellions" no matter how adorable, then it's fair to say that, at minimum, the first suspension is a condemnation - of a three-year-old - with no regard for any facts.

As everyone keeps posting, we don't know what the facts are, but the consensus is and should be bad kid and bad mother. Because no one here has had a kid younger than 5 flip out on them for no reason.

[Anonymous]

PP are you dim? People have addressed the fact that that the adorable children threw chairs at other children and spit on them. Once again, I do not care what color you are - this is unacceptable behavior for anyone, whatever race, whatever age.

[Anonymous]

I am in disbelief in what I'm reading. This article is about the disproportionate number of black kids suspended vs white kids (and all the research shows that this injustice continues on with more black young adults headed for jail).

How in the world are you blaming the the child or the adult? First, all children need to be treated EQUALLY. If that happened, we wouldn't have to discuss whether or not preschoolers should be suspended - they wouldn't.

The white parents and their children did not have to experience the same put downs and punishment as the black parents and their children. This stuff is internalized.

I see it everyday. It's very sad when you see two children who have the exact same behavior - one is punished severely and the other one is given a slap on the wrist. This is ever so present in the criminal justice system.

The prejudices are there clear as day. I have so many stories I could tell where I witnessed the turning point of a great child with a bright future being labelled "bad" due to underlying prejudices. I don't think the people involved had any idea of their prejudices. And even though the adults were different races, classes, etc. - the boys were predominately black.

If you don't know this happens everyday and is a problem, please educate yourselves. AND be aware of your prejudices... we all have them.

[Anonymous]

And once you label an impressionable kid "bad" (especially as young as 3 years old), that kid will start behaving badly because that is EXPECTED. Kids do what we expect of them.

The teachers need to STOP EXPECTING the black children to misbehave. The research (and common sense by watching it with your own eyes) shows that black children (primarily boys) start to believe this crap and act accordingly.

Again, I see this stuff everyday. So very frustrating.

[Anonymous]

So, let me get this straight. The teachers and administration supposedly expected these children to misbehave, and this somehow caused the children to act out violently and inappropriately. I think there is much more to this story than the spin put forward by someone who appears to be desperate for a little publicity. Show me the evidence that her children were suspended for throwing chairs, hitting a teacher, spitting on classmates, etc., but a white child engaging in similar behavior in the same school did not receive the same. This type of behavior is not appropriate at any age, much less at four, and causes me to wonder whether any of it was observed at home and then replicated at school. These children need counseling, not publicity.

[Anonymous]

So the elephant in the living room: what causes black kids to be born with these behaviors and to maintain them so that they end up disproportionately represented in prisons?

And before you bash me: my white preschooler was suspended more times than I could count for behavior problems and tantrums. I learned later that they were holding him down and he would hit them. They didn't call it a suspension because that would have skewed their school safety profile. Just a call home, "Can you come pick up your son?" It got so bad that he would walk up to the teacher, hit her and calmly ask, "Can I go home now?" Four year olds know how the system works.

[Anonymous]

So the elephant in the living room: what causes black kids to be born with these behaviors and to maintain them so that they end up disproportionately represented in prisons?

What causes you to be born believing that black kids are born with these behaviors?

Answers to both questions are the same.