I want your opinion... A 3rd grader that I know brought a Swiss Army Knife to school, flashed it around on the playground and also told a kid to get away from him when he had this pocket knife. The kid told on him (rightfully so) and the student was sent home and there was a Superintendents hearing...the principal wanted him out of school for the rest of the year (9 weeks) the verdict was 5 weeks out of school suspension....he is on home tutoring(which the district is paying for 1 hour a day-probably $80/hour) Today I was talking to the kid and asking if he learned anything from this and he said yeah, but I might do it again...I was like what?!?! He said yea, because being suspended is like a vacation. (It is currently the 3rd week of the suspension and he loves the tutor) So...obviously I agree that this is a serious offense and a 9 year old needs to understand how serious it is....but I'm not sure this 5 week "vacation" is the right punishment for the crime....though I'm not sure what would be so I wanted your opinions.
That would have been 1 or 2 days at my school....then you'd be right back in your seat. This isn't long enough, but 5-9 weeks is totally excessive.
I think that whenever a consequence involves keeping a kid out of school, the parenting/home situation becomes a major factor in whether the consequence will be effective. If I had been suspended and had to stay at home, you can bet that it would have not been a vacation for me. My parents would have had me outside pulling weeds or hauling firewood, inside scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush, getting up at 4 AM, not seeing or talking to my friends, not using my phone or computer or CD player, doing the family's laundry and dishes, and any number of other heavy duty unpleasant tasks. I would have been itching to go back to school and I would never, ever again do whatever it was that caused me to get suspended. It sounds like this kid didn't have those sort of at-home consequences, and that's too bad. It's also why I think that in-school suspension is often a better alternative in many cases.
I agree...in this case he has been going to work with his mother-except today when I took him and another day last week at his grandparents- she works in a store...he hangs out in the back room, lays around, reads(which he likes), watches tv there. I do think the parent should be inconvenienced bc she is to blame to some extent. The neighbor gave the kid the swiss army knife after they used it to fix his bike. She said ok he could keep it, but it had to stay in his room. He's 9...if he was given a $100- bill at a birthday party would you let him hold onto it or would you hold it for safe keeping. But I don't blame her for taking him to work with her, she can't stay home for 5 weeks. He also has to go to counseling, which I agree with- but not sure how the school can order this and not provide it. The mother has called all around and all the places that take her insurance have a 3-4 week waiting list. A. What if she didn't have insurance? and B. What are the counselors in the school building for if not this?
Wow, that is a long time for a "suspension". I am also shocked there are 9 weeks left of school. We have less than 9 days.
I'm not sure what would happen at the elementary level - at the middle level, he would have been expelled and sent to the alternative school for the rest of the year. Our maximum OSS is 10 days.
I am fed up with ruination visited upon our schools by thuggery at whatever level, and I welcome this sort of "overreaction" in every such instance. I am much more concerned with the rights and education of the other children than I am with the rights of this incipient punk.
A lot of schools in the northeast at least don't start until after Labor Day. As a result, we go till mid June. I do think that five weeks is a LONG time to suspend a 9 year old, particularly at the prices we're talking. I'm the parent of a 9 year old; I think sometimes we forget how young they are. I would much rather see an IN SCHOOL suspension.
I've never seen suspension as being a real consequence. It's more for the administration, teachers, and other students than for the student in question. They want to get the kid out of their school for a while so they can figure out what to do with him (or just get them out of their hair).
And sometimes there is nothing wrong with that. I had a student of mine suspended last week for a day. He was of course happy to stay home, I was also very happy for him to stay home. As was the rest of the class.
I think in school would have been much more effective....and the price of a substitute teacher to supervise would be pretty much equal to that 1 hr of home tutoring. (If the school doesn't already have someone -the district I used to sub in would call a sub in the rare case of elementary iss) I'm fearful of how his attitude and effort will be when he returns on June 4th.
I'm not a parent, so I'm just trying to understand. Bc initially I thought of boy scouts and 9 seemed old enough...hes a smart kid...he knows how to use a knife. I was surprised when so many of myfriends said they would not allow their kid to have one and even the ones who had boyscouts said they kept it unless they were camping. I guess it also depends on the kid....going back to the $100 bill metaphor....some parents may know their kidswell enough to know they wouldn't take it to school to show off.
I can't believe that some people here believe that 5 weeks is too much. Really? Can we maybe consider the feelings of the kid who was threatened with a knife? If the kid brought it for show and tell I would feel differently. But he was using it as a weapon. Not even as a tool, definitely not as a simple artifact to show off. Regarding the counseling...could it be that it was a stipulation for a lesser punishment?
I don't know if the girl was necessarily "threatened" ...he was showing the knife to some boys and the girl came over and he said get away (don't get me wrong I would be beyond mad if that were my daughter) I actually got more info about the counseling today bc it didn't make sense to me...the school actually did offer to set up a place...but it was in a very sketchy area and based out of a home and the mother didn't feel comfortable driving to that area or waiting in her car for the hour while her sons session was so that is why she sought out a place on her own which was also an option given to her at the hearing. I can't stop thinking about how bad this is for him for routine and how in school suspension would have been so much better.
You know, I was thinking about this 'threatening thing' and whether or not it was a real threat or just the kid saying to get back.
PCdiva, the way you explained what happened doesn't sound like he threatened her at all. If my hypothetical daughter told me that story, I'd want to know if the student had the knife part open, and if he moved toward her in a threatening way. It seems like the kid feels he was punished for basically nothing...and so doesn't see why he shouldn't do it again.
5+ weeks is expulsion here. Yeah, they get to come back; that's not really getting expelled, is it? Anyway, that is a long time to suspend a little kid. If he threated another kid though, and had a weapon, and threatened to do it again, that kid would be withdrawn. Sorry, I think I missed part of it, but what did the parents say? There were at least two conferences with them, right? (before and after suspension?)
The 5 weeks is not up yet...not sure if there will be a meeting before him returning to school. The parent had a meeting that day when she picked him up as well as the superintendent s hearing.
A kid brought a loaded gun to school and was sentenced to thirty days of alternative school. No conference was required to be put back in my room.
Holy moly. That is terrifying and I would raise hell. Even if they had no plans to use it, I think we've all heard news stories about horrible, tragic accidents in cases like this.
ISS doesn't work in my school I think ISS is a better choice, but I know it doesn't work in my school. The aide that is in there is really old and really cranky, she let's them sleep and listen to their music--if they made them do manual labor--scrape gum off of chairs, help the janitors, it might make them not want to be there.
