What happened to make suspension days jump at TPS from 34,700 in 04 to 50,645 in 05?
As I was reading the article in the Blade about Toledo Public Schools aiming to reduce disciplinary absences, I couldn’t stop thinking about the chart that they showed where they show the number of suspension days with a huge jump from the 04-05 school year to the 05-06 school year, with the numbers making a small reduction since. I think you can’t help but wonder when in 03-04 there were 37,687, a drop in 04-05 and then a huge jump in 05-06 with last year’s numbers still being 10,000 more suspension days than 03-04 with a reduced student population, what was the cause?
Could it be related to the dress code? It’s clear that students are given suspensions for not following the dress code. There is no mention of it in the article though I know from my own personal experience and what has been told to me by other parents, that one of the main complaints related to some receiving harsher punishments than others or some receiving no punishment is directly related to dress code enforcement. There’s no consistency…last year as an example socks were an issue, but it was selective as to who not wearing socks created a disciplinary action. (Yes, my child was one of the evil sockless ones.) The other issue is PDA, who gets in trouble for that is also selective. When a child can get in trouble for hugging a friend who is in tears, it makes me wonder how much we’ve dehumanized our educational process…
I’m glad they are taking steps to look at providing more access to intervention, I hope they are successful in cutting down the numbers of students that are suspended and expelled, and I really hope they develop consistency policies through the whole district as well as at individual buildings. It would have been more informative had more information been shared as to some of the suspension reasons. While not all parents have access to the internet, it would also be very helpful if the TPS website was a bit more user friendly, it is possible to find the Discipline Code but it’s not clear if that is the most recent one, if you go to page 4 of the pdf you can see what infractions will create a suspension or an expulsion and which ones are stated require a police report.
I read that too. I wondered what the numbers were back in the 1970’s when TPS deans were allowed to crack someone on the arse.
Tough situation. It’s not fair to the other students to have trouble makers disrupting their education.
September 8th, 2008 at 5:29 amI hope the new president will abandon “no child left behind” and instead change it to “leave a few losers behind for the better good.”
September 8th, 2008 at 1:35 pmJeff, I’m with ya buddy! Anyone else find it just plain stupid that in these dire economic times, we’ve replaced a $1 piece of scrap 2×4 with a $70k a year cop?
On top of that, parents should stop trying to blame the policies and take a good hard look at their kid’s behavior. The school system has policies in place for a reason…your kid decides not to follow them and gets suspended…whoa no…it’s the policy thats bad…not my kid!
Try drinking a 12 pack and getting pulled over and using the “it’s the policy thats wrong” excuse in court!
My kids no longer go to TPS. The schools they now attend have only a fraction of the problems TPS has. I heard a saying a few years back and it goes like this…
“Parents don’t move to the suburbs to put their kids in better schools…parents move to the suburbs to put their kids in schools with better kids.”
I never gave much credence to that saying until I went to Byrnedale and seen how the kids were acting…and then visited my daughter’s new jr high and noticed the difference for myself.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:14 pmLetting the nuts run the asylum is what keeps TPS in the state it’s in.
Sepp,
I’m agree with you. The thought of someone “spanking” one of my kids turns my stomach. But you know what? They better not do anything that would warrant such penalty. If they did, they deserve it.
As long as kids or people in general can get away with something without having the pay the piper, they will.
Does anyone really think that suspending a “drug dealer” for 51 days really makes a difference to that kid? Having that kid out of school for 51 days helps the other kids that are there not causing problems.
This entire article stinks. If your kid can’t act responsibly in school, than spare the 20,000 others and let him/her start flipping burgers and digging ditches. Don’t penalize the good kids.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:28 pmWe took the rules out of classrooms (Ten Commandments). How can we expect our children to follow rules when there is no standard anymore. Nice job liberals…we are all reaping what you have sown.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:43 pmI agree with everything that’s been posted in the comments so far! I’d also like to add that the only thing that is really “different” is the uniform dress code. While I totally understand that it’s one of those rules that we have to go by, whether we like it or not, I also know from personal experience that what should be acceptable may be OK for one child, but not OK for another.
We recently had a situation with my daughter where she wore a shirt to school one day and it was fine. When she wore the same shirt two days later she was pulled into the office and told “That is the wrong shade of maroon and you cannot wear it again”. I was left scratching my head trying to figure out when the dress code got to the point where it allowed only a specific shade of a color. The shirt is NOT red, it definitely is maroon, but apparently it’s not a dark enough color of maroon for their liking.
I do not like the uniform code, I never have and I never will. I do, however, make my children follow it and do not allow them to see how far they can push as to whether or not something is actually allowed. However, I have no idea how the shade or a color of a shirt has anything to do with the type of education my child gets while they are in school. The enforcement or lack of enforcement of the uniform code is getting a bit ridiculous when it comes down to them getting picky about the specific shade of a color. If they’re going to get this picky, then they need to provide a color chart BEFORE we go school shopping!
September 8th, 2008 at 3:47 pmThat should say “The enforcement or lack of “across the board” enforcement is getting a bit ridiculous when it comes down to them getting picky about the specific shade of a color”
September 8th, 2008 at 3:50 pmHolly, our kids are wearing uniforms so they don’t mistakenly wear the wrong “colors” and get assaulted or, worse. It never was about “discipline in the classroom” since I can put a hat on a pitbull and it’s still a pitbull. Uniforms came into vogue after Los Angeles’s gangs were shooting kids for wearing blue or, red and spread to Toledo.
Jeff, my kids know up front that a paddle at school is rewarded with another one at home.
September 8th, 2008 at 5:37 pmOff the cuff, I’d say Holly was onto something unsaid as part of the problem. That “something” is the sorry trend of OVERENFORCEMENT of weaker classes of offender. So, literally, the more the TPS becomes Black and poor, the more the officials running the entire thing will whip out the rulebook. It’s profiling … pure and simple.
Purnhrt on Swampbubbles has been complaining about such enforcement issues for years. I believe there’s a core to her complaint that’s correct. However, all these school officials have been so indoctrinated about racial issues that they are probably incapable of understanding they are being racist or at least classist themselves. And that’s what’s so insidious about racism and other such prejudice — that we accept those assumptions without careful review.
At the very least, without even touching on motivations, the officials in place to perform such discipline should consider changing their punishments to something more re-involving with the school system. Expulsions should be transformed into work-related punishment. Suspensions should be transformed into in-school suspensions. Etc. This is a basic framework of sanity … to recognize that when increasing punishments doesn’t result in increasing compliance, then those punishments should be changed to more constructive (or at least attentive) forms.
Sure, the failure rate will be terrible, but as long as a few more children respond to constructive discipline, then we can recover more of the subject population. Real discipline is enacted by social mores; hence, the subject population must cooperate or the entire effort is pointless. Eventually, persuasion wins them over.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:09 amGuestzero…are you stoned? Seriously.
Guess what, rule enforcement ISN’T racist since the rules apply to everyone. Just pretend it’s a racial issue and that removes any liability and responsiblity from the offender right?
So what you’re saying is that it’s some kind of “cultural” thing to not obey rules…so blacks should simply be exempted from following them?
What bullshit.
It reminds me of when back in the army there was a regulation against loud music blaring from cars on post. Guess who was doing it? Guess who got ticketed? Guess who cried that it was a racial issue?
Guess who the MP’s were no longer allowed to stop anymore for loud music?
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all could just say “screw the rules, we’ll feign racism” and just do whatever the hell we want to? Why even have rules to begin with since certain cultures are offended by obeying them…and being caught.
Are you really that ignorant to think the principals in the school system are looking for poor black kids to satisfy some kind of thirst for racism or, have you been listening to purnhart’s line of B.S too much?
September 9th, 2008 at 6:45 pmSepp, you’re the one with the handicap here, since you didn’t learn to read, to wit:
“[...] OVERENFORCEMENT of weaker classes of offender. So, literally, the more the TPS becomes Black and poor, the more the officials running the entire thing will whip out the rulebook.”
We’re all lawbreakers. Even you. There are so many laws on the books that you can’t help but cross some law somewhere.
Hence I’m just suggesting that in weaker schools with more social problems, the rulebook may be dragged out and applied more liberally in order to stem the perceived tide of chaos.
That you’re not even willing to admit that’s possible, demonstrates that you’re part of the problem to begin with. Our society has a huge class war going on, and denial that it’s going on is part of the war itself.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:41 pmAnd here is my first example of the year for a disciplinary action over the dress code. My son, in the 10th grade, received a detention for a vest that he wears to school almost daily. Per the TPS High School Dress Code that is sitting in front of me, this is what it says:
The vest in question that earned him a detention was a black fleece vest that zips up. As stated, he wears it to school almost daily and this is the first time it ever came into question. The reason it came into question and earned him a detention? It zips up and he had it partially unzipped and the green thread sewn into the inside of the collar showed, making the vest not a solid color and earning him a detention.
I’m just wondering how much more ridiculous this is going to get? Honest to God I am so pissed off right now I swear it’s a damn good thing that I don’t own weapons! WTF?!?! Can anyone explain to me what horrible effect green sewing INSIDE of a black vest will have my childs F’ing education?
September 12th, 2008 at 4:00 pm