Student Suspensions: What Are They Good For? Community Panel Looks For Solutions

Distinguished members of the Rochester community gathered at Frederick Thomas High on Saturday, Sept. 18, to discuss the effects of student suspensions or as Reverend Blackman of St. Luke Tabernacle Community Church put it, "to take care of family business." He noted that the problem is happening not just in Rochester but in urban communities across the country.

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One student from Edison Tech, Trakiem Gordon, was suspended this year on the very first day of school and was not integrated back into the classroom for five days. This was also the first time he had ever been suspended. Gordon said, "I didn't learn anything. It was pretty much a waste of time."

An advocate for Gordon addressed a point Principal Jordan had made earlier about on-site detentions. " ‘Isolation’can happen within a building too even if you don’t send them to another site. I am wary of all this "prison" language being used by school administrators in effect criminalizing the student like he/she is some convicted felon." Gordon’s case is still being negotiated with District officials.

According to statistics and sentiments expressed by the panel and audience members it appears a broader solution is needed beyond dealing with suspensions case by case. Schools in their heavy handed, long-term suspension approach, rather than correcting behavior, may be adding salt to the wound.

Camille Bell, Academy Director at Charter School of Science and Technology, didn’t quite agree with the direction the discussion was going in blaming administrators in their dealings with students. "At no point can we forget that children need to be held accountable. At our school we have a parent-liaison right at the school. We work directly with the mothers and fathers."

After the spirited feedback from the audience, the panel speakers continued. Elementary school teacher Lori Thomas, who gained some notoriety last March for "washing a students mouth out with soap," spoke next. Thomas first explained what happened before the media and public hearsay helped vault the incident into Harry Potter-type, Miss Nelson Is Missing –children’s book hyperbole.

"I made the decision to wash a student's mouth out with Dial Liquid Soap. While this may sound like a heinous act, it consisted of putting one drop of soap on the boy's lip and washing it away immediately. The incident was over in less than five minutes and the young man returned to his seat and continued working."

Thomas said the District sent students the wrong message by suspending her. It happened to be the end of the school year and a few weeks before testing. All but two of her students failed the NY standardized tests. Furthermore the suspension demonstrated to students that you can misbehave and there are no tangible consequences. Thomas noted that following that incident, the same student was suspended two more times that school year for other problems.

Thomas gained wide support among both parents, students and fellow teachers in the community who deem stronger action is needed to discipline students, whether that be administered by the parents or the teachers. "A parent can’t give the child what a parent doesn’t have," concluded Thomas. Her comments were well received by the audience on hand.

"I am in full agreement with Ms. Thomas," said Howard Eagle, a teacher at James Madison School of Excellence. "By suspending students it says ‘we don’t want them and we don’t love them.’" He commended Thomas, "you put your job on the line."

Eagle urged the panel and audience to take a "solution-oriented" approach. "Let there be no mistake about it, this is a crisis. It is a matter of dealing with it at the front end rather than the back end. The reality is that we are dealing with both ends. There are serious underlying issues that are not being addressed. Some serious restructuring is needed. We have to include more community members, real partnerships."

Camille Bell spoke up now. "The State mandates that a schools’ first priority be academic and second, social responsibilities. Yet social responsibilities are becoming a burden and getting heavier and heavier. When do we say, ‘mama handle your child?’"

Panel member Noemi Ortiz, Puerto Rican Youth Development Youth Counselor, responded. "How can the State and upper levels dictate what we are supposed to do with our youth?" Ortiz then admitted, "but when we ask the community to address such problems, they don’t come out." There were only about 35 people attending the forum.

One parent, who arrived late to the gathering, was critical of the panel organizers in publicizing the event. "How were you ever going to find out about this meeting? I read the newspaper, but many in the community are illiterate. They don’t read the newspaper. There are no Hispanics in the crowd. Who was notified? How do you get more people here that have a stake in this discussion. The District has a list of all students suspended. Their parents could have been told this meeting was taking place."

Ortiz criticized the elimination of many bilingual programs at Freddie Thomas High and cited this as the reason more members of the Hispanic community not participating. "The Latino community is very upset and turned off."

Phillip Johnson, a parent liaison at School #22, sited two more programs at his child’s school that had been cut –the KBA(Kids Basketball Association) and PTA Retreat. "The programs that work they shut down. Every time that they are working they get shut down."

On a lighter note panelist Rod L. Jones, Executive Vice President of the Community Place of Greater Rochester, offered some tragically derived optimism. Jones, a native of Brooklyn and one of the toughest housing projects in the New York City area, said "things are still substantially better here in Rochester than in New York."

Pastor Dr. James H. Evans Jr. of St. Luke Tabernacle Community Church was the final panelist and gave the forum some historical perspective.

"Why the churches haven’t taken up this concern over suspensions is just the tip of the iceberg. The public school movement came out of the Sunday School movement. Public education originated from organized church. But when legislation began to eliminate prayer in church a schism unfolded between church and school contact. Also recently, the religious right has attacked public education. Their stance was if public education can’t be utterly controlled by the church then it should be eliminated. Jerry Falwell has said he would like to destroy public education.(Falwell is a pastor of the 22,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, and a leading spokesman for the religious right.) Suspensions provide a convenient excuse to develop these plans.

Reverend Avery Blackman, also of St. Luke Church, closed the meeting with a hand-locked prayer that encompassed all attending the forum. "This is not just a gathering to lament but part of the process in finding a solution," said Blackman.

This was the first of a three part community forum, that’s stated goal is finding an alternative to suspensions in resolving student behavioral issues. Part II will be held in the Spring of 2005 and offer concrete implementations. Part III will draft a Public Policy Advocacy Action Plan.