Schools have rightfully been concerned about contributing to the prison to school pipeline but they have veered completely to the other end of the spectrum where there is no accountability whatsoever for students. It’s an anything goes environment. Kids are not dumb, they know there are no consequences.

As a former teacher in two urban school districts (quit my job earlier this year), students who were real hazards to others were constantly let off the hook. One student would constantly sexually harass other female students; he would touch them and corner them if he ever found them in a hallway or room alone. The most that was ever done was a couple days of in-school suspension and then he is back to the classroom afterwards.

We have created a perverse system of incentives for schools. The feds look at suspension data, especially based on race and IEO status. Principals have gotten around this by deciding not to suspend anyone at all. Everything falls on the teacher’s shoulders to handle.

Similarly, my experience has been that we have over-interpreted “least restrictive environment” for students to mean that every student should be placed in a general education without really addressing the issues at hand. “Oh hey Mr. History Teacher, here is this student who we are transferring to your class because he was physical with a student in his previous class. Anytime he needs a break, call the counselor and social worker. Just make sure you don’t call too much or it’s going to be marked as needs improvement on your evaluation.”

And I am not saying that everyone needs to be suspended. To be honest, I’m not sure that solves much of anything. But I do think, if we are going to try this, we need to fully fund schools so they can get appropriate levels of staffing for counselors and crisis responders. I do think there is a happy medium where we are not excluding kids (although there are some who I think will benefit from a separate placement) from their peers, but also making sure that students with severe behavioral needs are getting the support they need.