More Kids Getting Suspended from School, but Why?

More than 3 million school children nationwide are suspended from school each year, 6.9 percent of the student population in 2006, the latest year for which data is available. The 2006 suspension figures reflected a tenth of a percentage point increase over 2004 data which translates into an extra 49,000 suspensions. Why are so many students getting suspended?

While many suspensions may be justified, the reports of ridiculous suspensions are so prevalent that it appears some school administrators are exercising poor judgment when it comes to imposing them.

Among the more ridiculous suspensions imposed in the last few years, are these:

Suspended for Speaking?

Northjersey.com reported Nov. 12 that a Wayne Valley High School boy was suspended after using the word "Taliban" in school and then telling a fellow student that nothing happened after a girl reported him to the principal.

Principal Robert Reis denied that the use of the word is the cause of the suspension. A Muslim girl the boy did not know overheard his use of the word- he says it was in reference to a video game- and because she thought he was looking at her when he said it, felt insulted and reported him. In sending the students back to class, the principal told the boy not to talk about the incident. When a fellow student asked what happened, and he said "nothing," the girl reported him for violating the principal's order not to discuss the incident. She apparently interpreted his saying nothing happened as bragging.

Suspended for Farting

In 2009, a Lakeland, Fla. middle school student was suspended after being accused of deliberately farting on the school bus to make other students laugh.

He wasn't the only Fla. student removed from school for farting. A Stuart student who farted in class and turned off computers other students were using was not only removed from class in 2008, he was arrested.

Suspended for Attire

Suspensions over attire are commonplace but often reflect a lack of common sense on the part of the school administration.

In Nov. two middle school girls were suspended for wearing breast cancer awareness bracelets saying "I (heart) boobies." So much for building social consciousness.

In their zeal to ban anything gang related, some school districts have suspended children for wearing rosary beads on the supposition that the beads are gang symbols. Thirteen year old Raymond Hosier of Schenectady, New York was suspended in 2009 for wearing the rosary beads his brother was gripping when he died in his brother's memory. Perhaps his school system has never heard of Catholicism. It took the intervention of a Federal judge to restore Hosier's right to wear rosary beads in school. But Hosier was not the only student recently suspended from public school for wearing rosary beads. A similar suspension was imposed on a former altar boy from Rockland County, New York in Feb.

And then there were the four girlfriends from Marion, Ind. suspended in 2006 because they chose to wear identical clothing to school. The school claimed that identical clothing was a sign of gang membership.

Identical clothing means gang membership? What does that say about school uniforms? Or schools that encourage students to celebrate Twin Day as part of School Spirit Week?

Suspended for Association with Contraband

While bringing contraband to school may be grounds for suspension, some schools are imposing suspensions on students for incidental association with contraband.

When a girl put a pill in her hand in their Jeffersonville, Ind. middle school, Rachael Greer said she didn't want it and returned it to the girl's bag of pills. Greer was suspended for 5 days because the pill touched her hand. The school district policy considers any touching of a drug "possession" and mandates a one-week suspension. Even more bizarre? Had Greer immediately sought the assistance of a teacher rather than return the pill, the outcome would have been the same, according to school officials.

A Boy Scout who found a lighter on school property on his way into his Jamesburg, N.J. school was suspended for picking it up and putting it in his pocket Sept. 24.

Despite any evidence of actual contraband, bloodshot eyes got Kyler Robertson from Trophy Club, Tex. suspended from school in Sept. School officials presume red eyes mean drug use. In Kyler's case, his eyes were red from crying that Tuesday morning, because his dad had been murdered over the weekend.

In 2008, when a Hilton Head 10 year old accidentally broke his pencil sharpener in school and pocketed the pieces, he was suspended for violating the school weapons policy by possessing the blade.

Told to draw a picture that reminded them of Christmas, an 8 year old special needs boy from Taunton, Mass. in Dec. 2009 drew Jesus on the cross. He was suspended for what school officials called a "violent" drawing. He was required to attend violence counseling before being allowed to return to school.

Suspended for Humaneness

Whitney Hillman was enrolled in an animal science class at Concordia High School and did not realize until it was too late to drop the class that she would be required to slaughter a chicken after raising it. Unable to kill her pet, she hid it and was suspended for 2 days.

In evaluating school suspension data, it is as important to review the behavior of school administrators imposing the suspensions as that of the students suspended.