Suspending Or Expelling Millions Of Kids Each Year Doesn’t Address The Root Of The Behavior
Alysse Loomis, University of Utah
Each school year, nearly 3 million K-12 students get suspended and over 100,000 get expelled from school. The offenses range from simply not following directions, to hitting or kicking, to more serious behaviors like getting caught with drugs or a weapon.
And it starts early in students’ education – it’s not uncommon for preschoolers as young as 3 years old to be suspended or expelled from their childcare program.
A big part of the problem has to do with implicit biases. Black students, especially boys, are suspended and expelled at much higher rates than white students. Teachers tend to see the behavior of boys in general and students of color as more difficult, and they respond in harsher ways. This is true even if it is the exact same behavior.
But ...