children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

ChapterS
School Discipline and Its Exclusionary
Impact on Students
This chapter is about misbehaving school children
and misbehaving school officials. Children's infractions
of school rules are a matter of grave concern.
The problem of official violation of basic rules of
fairness should be of equal concern. Not only are
children thrown out of school for a vast array of
offenses, they are frequently thrown out so arbitrarily
and with so little apparent consideration for
their personal and educational interests as to call
into question the underlying validity of expulsion
and suspension as school policies.
While violence in the schools is feared by many
school personnel, parents, and children, the stereotypic
image of hordes of incorrigible children wreaking
havoc on entire schools is not borne out by our
findings. This is not to deny that controling school
violence and maintaining order are matters demanding
great attention. In at least one school in Denver,
Colorado we found a serious violence problem which
resulted in some children being afraid to attend
school. Problems of overcrowding, racial and class
hostilities, rebellious adolescents and inadequate resources
have contributed to genuine concern for
safety within schools.
We favor discipline and order within schools.
But we question the current methods used to achieve
these goals. We do not believe the answer to children's
discipline problems lies in denying them
schooling. Worse is the denial of schooling without
any semblance of fairness, for a wide range of reasons,
some indefensible and others unnecessary. For
"It seems surprising," one principal wrote, "that
we of the public schools, responsible for the education
and development of young people, would
have to be told by the courts that young people
are individuals - individuals with basic human
rights. "I
example, how does suspending a truant child contribute
to order or to the child's welfare? If children
smoke, what is the great burden entailed in setting
aside a smoking area rather than suspending them?
What is the educational rationale for suspending a
child because he cannot control his bladder? How
are others seriously harmed by these "offenses"?
In some districts a principal can put a child out of
school "indefinitely" until a psychiatrist or doctor
sees him, and he apparently has the prerogative to
refuse to take a child back in school. 2 For example:
A fourth grader whose parent refused to agree to
a special education placement was out of school
for over a year after a suspension in February,
1972..There was no hearing "because he didn't
ask for one."8
The school told George in the seventh grade that
he could attend "only if I was under the care of
a doctor and on Mellaril. I said no. I took it once
but I walked around like a vegetable and fell
asleep." He was expelled.
For some groups of children who are minority,
poor and in secondary schools, suspension seems to
have become a commonplace, informal and unquestioned
occurrence hidden from public view and
scrutiny. A black mother in Holyoke, related some
of her experiences with her son whc was the only
1 Richard M. Ritchie, "Due Process and the Principal," Phi
Delta Kappan, Vol. 54, June 1973, p. 698.
2 Interview with Fleming Cocchi, Principal, Elias Brookings
Elementary School, Springfield, Massachusetts, 12/7/73.
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