Schools

Up until about ten or fifteen years ago, disruptive students were suspended or even expelled but that all came to a halt when some enterprising person discovered, that even though Black students only represented 15% of the school population they represented 45% of the expulsions. This immediately led to claims of racism and had to stop. Expulsions were detrimental on a number of levels. First the school lost the $8,000 per year per student from state funds. Second students not in school tended to get in trouble with the law. Third they weren't learning and would not graduate. Changes were made to correct these problems and it didn't take the students long to figure out that they would not be expelled or in most cases even suspended. So how did the schools deal with the new ways. Each school has a room where disruptive students can be sent or student can choose to go to that room on their own. The results were promising in that it was determined that its better to spend $15,000 per year to keep the student in school for four years than to spend $35,000 per year to keep them in prison often times for more than four years. On several occasions I subbed in these trouble rooms and found something quite surprising. There would normally be only 4 or 6 students in the room at any given time so I could help one on one. I discovered that students showed an interest in things like chemistry and algebra. I realized that they could understand chemistry if given this private tutoring. The downside is that in all to many situations this resulted in more severe cases of misbehavior and the schools are now stuck. They can no longer remove students who are disruptive and the students know that so bad behavior is on the rise across the country. Cases where student attack one another and even attack teachers are increasing. The days of talking and throwing things in class have been replaced with physical violence and the schools do not know how to deal with these new threats. Interestingly enough we now see the same situation with young adults in the community. The punishment has been reduced and crime is on the rise. I wonder if these new criminals are the same people who were disruptive in school. It is a relatively small number percentage wise as most of the crime is caused by repeat offenders. Catch 22!