The number of Montgomery County Public Schools students who spent time out of school on suspensions or expulsions this year was half that of the 2009-2010 school year.
School system officials say the reduction in suspensions shows their new policy—made official this school year with the introduction of a Code of Conduct booklet—is working.
But concerns remain.
“There are rumblings out there in the community and they’re pretty loud rumblings that kids can’t be suspended, that the schools are running amok,” Board of Education President Patricia O’Neill said during a discussion of the policy at Tuesday’s school board meeting.
Rather than suspend students for relatively minor infractions such as cutting class or disrespecting teachers, the Code of Conduct recommends other options such as community service, peer mediation and written apologies that keep offenders in school and don’t let them miss class time for their misdeeds.
Northwood High School in Silver Spring, for example, saw a 70 percent drop in suspensions during the 2013-2014 school year compared to the year before, the result of de-escalation strategies Principal Mildred Charley-Greene and her administrators asked teachers to use when faced with insubordination or insults from students.
“It’s not because we’re not addressing behaviors,” Charley-Greene said. “We’re choosing a different way and we’re involving students in it.”
The school system has held up Charley-Greene and Northwood as a prime example of how the new strategy works. She spoke before the County Council last year about the new philosophy.
This school year, Northwood instituted student-teacher mediation sessions, a jury of three other students and community service to deal with infractions that previously resulted in suspensions.
Students who might have otherwise been suspended for something that administrators determined wasn’t a safety issue could work with a security officer after school three days a week to fulfill their community service punishment.
“I’ve had students say, ‘Mrs. Charley-Greene, can you just suspend me?’ ” Charley-Greene said Tuesday.
This school year, 258 Northwood students have been referred to an administrator for a behavior problem, a marked decrease from the 758 referrals at this time last school year.
From the start of this school year through March, there were 163 suspensions countywide for classroom disruptions, disrespect or insubordination.
There were 225 suspensions for the same reasons over the same period of time last school year and 388 suspensions for those reasons in the 2012-2013 school year.
The Code of Conduct is a 10-page matrix of disruptive behavior and the levels of punishment administrators should dole out for each. It was developed by the school system and came after the Maryland State Board of Education finalized new regulations last year asking administrators to be more rehabilitative with punishments and to reduce racial disparities in suspensions and missed class time.
School system officials made it clear Tuesday during the board’s review of the policy that violent behavior, possession of a weapon or acts that threaten others still result in harsher punishments including suspensions and expulsions.
While remaining supportive of the strategy, board members said they are still constantly hearing concerns.
“We’ve heard pretty loud and clear concerns from principals about kids in the cafeteria refusing to clean up their lunch, kids in the hall saying, ‘You can’t suspend me,’ ” O’Neill said. “That urban legend is out there.”
Still, O’Neill said the policy of cutting down on “discretionary suspensions” has worked.
“Our children are learning and growing and children make mistakes,” O’Neill said. “Adults make mistakes.”
Board member Jill Ortman-Fouse said she heard from a PTA president last week that one principal was feeling so much pressure to reduce suspensions that students who fought with each other were allowed to return immediately to class rather than face discipline.
Ortman-Fouse said it’s up to the school system to correct stories like that one, which she called “misinformation.”
