School suspensions solve nothing

We have a great deal of sympathy for teachers and administrators who must cope with disruptive students in class. The job of providing a high quality education to all the children in their care is hard enough, and behavioral problems among a few students can make it nearly impossible. But suspending troubled students is rarely the answer. Keeping a child out of school does little, if anything, to address the real problem, and it may make matters worse by allowing the troublesome student to fall farther behind in his or her work.

That's why the report by The Sun's Erica Green documenting a spike in suspensions in the Baltimore City school system last year is so disturbing. Baltimore had been one of the national leaders in seeking alternative forms of discipline and driving down suspensions, but last year's increase of nearly 25 percent suggested that the district's focus on the issue had slipped. To be sure, the situation is much better than it was a decade ago, when suspensions were four times the current level, but it is nonetheless clear that new schools CEO Sonja Santelises needs to put discipline reform at the top of her agenda.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-suspensions-20161114-story.html