Reply to Out of school suspension in MCPS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have read the MCPS code of conduct and discipline policy and it  seems to be saying that out of school suspensions should not be used unless efforts to keep the kid in school really are not working.   The document talks about things like restorative opportunities, opportunities for apologizing, peer justice, etc.  These all sound like great things but our middle school keeps suspending my kid for nonviolent offenses such as  talking back with inappropriate  language  and disobeying requests from staff.  They’ve never given them a behavioral plan, they’ve tried to work with him but today I had to ask if he could even talk to a counselor before he was booted out the door on his suspension. They don’t seem to offer anything but out the door you go. Come pick him up.  Has anyone found that MCPS handles suspensions a little more lightly than I am experiencing?  Have you ever complained or fought the suspension and how do you do that in MCPS?  In my opinion suspension is just stupid unless the kid is a physical threat to someone at school. [b]Sending him home for a few days does nothing to help him change his behavior[/b] and I thought MCPS was getting that point. [/quote]

If the kid is so disrespectful to staff and peers that the teacher can't even teach, then that is grounds for removal from the classroom.  If this happens in multiple classrooms, then it can clearly reach the level for suspension/ parents required to pick up the student that day.   MCPS is not a daycare service.[/quote]

NP +1

Excluding a child from school is a last resort and if your kid behaves very badly in class (and yes, "talking back with inappropriate language and disobeying requests from staff" does fall into that category) then it's YOUR job to do something about it. [b]Teachers are there to teach, not to raise your child and change him from a wild animal into a student who is willing to learn and allow others to learn[/b].

If sending your kid home for a few days does nothing to help him change his behavior, then you need to change the way you think about suspensions. Maybe get your kid working in a soup kitchen for those days (and nights) that he's suspended. Or supervise him picking up all the trash and dog crap in every local park. Whatever you need to do to make suspensions unpleasant enough for your child that he doesn't mouth off to the teacher all day and stop the other kids from being able to learn.

Of course, that would actually involve some parenting. But it can be done.

And if your kid really is so unable to control himself and cannot possibly resist mouthing off all day no matter how you punish him (and that's assuming absolutely no tech, no privileges, etc, in addition to the chores above) then you need to accept that he's not a normal kid and he needs a special placement. You can't just keep sending him back into regular school and expecting everyone else to put up with your disruptive and totally disrespectful kid.[/quote]

Nailed it![/quote]

Thank you!  Sounds like you've observed every classroom in my elementary school.  The behaviors are God awful and the lack of action by parents is alarming.  We get the range of refusing to take our calls to labeling us as racists because their precious child cannot behave like a human.  I'm honestly surprised that the rest of the parents of students who are actually doing the right thing aren't calling our office on a daily basis demanding more be done.  Administration's hands are tied - parents need to start going to the BOE.  I actually feel bad for our administrators because they can't actually be instructional leaders as they spend most of their days putting out fires and serving as wardens.[/quote]

Our teachers and administrators and specialists don't return phone calls or emails so as a parent, after several years of the non-sense, we gave up.  [b]You are putting out fires because you don't team with parents and make them apart of their child's education.[/b]  Our school doesn't allow parent volunteers, only a 10 minute parent conference a year and very few papers returned/graded so we have no idea how our kids are doing.  I only go the MAP scores when my child could tell me as teachers refused to tell me (until someone here kindly posted how to get them).  And, yes, our admin. are racist.  We stopped calling and emailing as no one cares.  That is why parents stopped going to the PTA meetings, stopped donating and do the absolute minimum.[/quote]

Lady, you have no idea. At my school we constantly try to contact parents and the majority of parents who have kids with behavior issues either don't have working phone numbers, don't answer the phone or emails or tell us that it's our problem to deal with. We schedule conferences, EMTs, FBA and BIP meetings at a date/time when the parents tell us they can attend and then they don't show up. There is a pattern in the communication log where the kids with the most behavioral issues have numerous "no parent response" entries. We had one tell us to call the police next time instead of calling them because they don't have time to deal with it and if it happens during school hours then it's our problem. This is for a 3rd grader who clearly needs more help than we can provide at the school level, and we can't force the parent to access mental health services.

When I first started teaching 14 years ago there was maybe one child in the whole school with behavior issues as severe as we're seeing now. There's now about one in every class. It's not fair to the other students who are losing their right to a safe school environment, the staff members who are harassed and abused by them (hit, kicked & spit on, not to mention the vile words that come out of their mouths), and also not fair to the child him/herself as clearly their needs aren't being met at home or at school. I'm sorry your particular school doesn't seem to be quite as responsive as you would like, but your generalizations don't do anyone any favors when you have no clue what is actually happening on the other end.

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