This year, Denver Public Schools, the largest school district in the metro area, unveiled a revised disciplinary matrix that provides schools with updated guidelines about when exclusionary disciplinary tactics like expulsion and suspension are appropriate. Providing clearer guidance on when these types of disciplinary tactics are appropriate has been a focal point for refreshing the district’s disciplinary practices not only because these options have been disproportionately used in cases involving Black and Latino students, but also because the district wants schools to be judicious about suspending or expelling students. As DPS Deputy Chief of Staff Deborah Staten recently put it, the goal of the district “is not to have kids out of school… Our goal is to have kids in school.”
Of the many goals of the new matrix, a critical aim is narrowing the use of suspension or expulsion to cases where all other options have been exhausted. Essentially, the district wants schools to understand that exclusionary discipline should only be used as a last resort. For instance, the new guidelines state that, “Exclusionary discipline should be the option of last resort after appropriate interventions are implemented with fidelity.”
Promoting Focus
Teacher’s Perspective
In a recent conversation amongst young Black men and their teacher, participants indicated that suspension is often most useful in cases where student behavior disrupts the basic functions of the school like keeping a classroom orderly. The teacher noted that his time in the classroom has led him to believe that exclusionary discipline can be quite useful in cases where students are behaving in ways that are impeding others’ ability to focus. He noted that having some students disrupt others’ focus is particularly problematic in an era where many students already have a tough time settling down to focus on a task. As he put it, ”especially in your generation, y’all are distracted as hell. It’s so hard for y’all to sit down for a little bit and focus on something, so when I think about some of the students that are distracting learning… yeah, you need to be kicked out. Because if you’re distracting from learning, what is the point of being there?”
He further explained that while it is always somewhat difficult to manage a classroom, it can become nearly impossible if even just one student is adamant about refusing to cooperate with classroom instruction. Even more troublesome from the perspective of this teacher were students who actively sought to disrupt the ability of other students to engage with the content of the course. He felt that the school had an obligation to ensure the students who wanted to enjoy education without other students providing a distraction were able to do so.
The Students’ Side
Several students agreed with that sentiment, even going so far as to suggest that students who do not demonstrate a commitment to actively and positively participating in the school attaining the goals it has set out for itself would be better served spending their time doing something else. Some students thought that it was reasonable to turn to suspension or expulsion in cases where a student’s conduct would undermine the ability of a school to meet its goals.
As one young man put it, “what’s the real reason for you even being part of our community if you’re just going to sit up at the rec all day? Why don’t you just unregister yourself and go do something better with your time? Honestly, you’re just making the school look bad if you’re not showing up to classes and ruining the attendance average, the goal that the school has set for themselves, by just being here. That’s one of the valid reasons for not being here. If you’re not going to go [to class], then get out!”
Several students noted that of their peers that get suspended or expelled, a common theme is an overall disinterest in participating in school activities. These students seemed to think that schools are often so attached to keeping disruptive students in the classroom that they end up allowing their rejection of school rules to, in the end, bring down the overall morale of the school. They discussed the point that it may be better for some students to do other things with their time that advance their own personal aims and don’t involve others in the way that being in a school intrinsically does. In some ways, it seemed like these students considered their school community to be like a team and seemed unsure as to why the school couldn’t simply remove students who had no investment.
An Imperfect Practice
Without the possibility of expulsion, it may seem that consequences do not appropriately approximate the ‘real world’ and, therefore, tools like expulsion and suspension might be necessary as a precautionary warning of sorts. As one young man understood it, knowing that you can get expelled can sometimes serve as a useful reminder that “you’re about to be an adult and they’re about to start giving you adult consequences.”
However, there was significant disagreement about the effectiveness of exclusionary discipline as a means to indicate to students that they should consider modifying their behavior. From their perspective, far from being a deterrent, for many students getting suspended counts “as a flex.” One young man explained it this way, “most people who get suspended tend to think of it as a vacation, no punishment intended. Like yeah, you’re sending me home, but like, that’s where I was going anyway, so there’s no real consequence in certain students’ minds. The majority of students that cause problems and cause issues think ‘it’s no difference to me for real. I’m just not coming to a place I didn’t want to be in for real, anyway.’”
His comments highlighted a key point of tension in much of the discussion regarding exclusionary discipline, which is the seeming uncertainty about what exactly it’s meant to accomplish. Here, it seems effective for alleviating the disinterested student’s burden of attending school, but perhaps it is not so effective in preparing students to be successful in both the school environment, and more broadly, in the future.
They also noted that amongst students, removing someone from the school can create a type of suspense in anticipation of the return of the suspended student that can often make the situation worse. Recalling a recent incident that had taken place in their school, one student noted that a particularly intense fight had occurred between two girls and one of them was suspended for only two days. Upon returning to school, the same two girls got into another fight. He speculated that perhaps some more time apart would have allowed the parties to more effectively move on from the original incident. Another student pointed out that sometimes students will egg on the students involved in the incident that resulted in the suspension to continue the behavior. He noted that this type of social pressure can be especially pervasive after students return from suspensions for things like fighting with other students. As one young man noted, it is really easy for constant comments about how one got beat up so badly that they had to suspend the other student to get under one’s skin.
Conclusion
As school districts continue to navigate the complexities of providing schools with workable guidelines to ensure that discipline is consistent and effective across the district, it may be worth continuing to consider what exactly the purpose of exclusionary discipline is. This conversation suggests that at least for some community members, exclusionary discipline is the appropriate tool when student behaviors are making it difficult for teachers and students to establish and enjoy a school environment that is conducive to learning. However, for others, this might be too insignificant of a reason to actually suspend or expel students.
It seems that determining whether or not suspending students from school is appropriate depends in large part on what the exclusionary discipline is intended to do. If it is simply to make it easier for the school to proceed with its operations then it seems to be relatively effective, but if it is meant to help students be more likely to successfully navigate school settings in the future it might not be the most effective practice. In short, the practice of exclusionary discipline creates a quandary of sorts because although it is a useful strategy, it is an unsatisfying solution to the underlying problems.
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