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Under Vallas, Kindergartner Suspension Rate Climbs Dramatically

Note: Don't miss the note at the bottom of the story.

The Philadelphia School District's tough new discipline policy is reaching down to the youngest: Administrators have suspended 33 kindergartners this year, including a boy who punched a 71/2- months-pregnant teacher in the stomach, records show. . . .

Last year, only one kindergarten suspension was recorded in the first three months of school.

Officials said the reason for the increase was that principals are trying to enforce the "zero-tolerance" disciplinary policy, which calls for reporting all incidents and for appropriate consequences. Paul G. Vallas, the school district's chief executive, warned principals when the school year began that they could be fired if they failed to report incidents.

"The difference between 1 and 33 has to do with the fact that more people are reporting," Vallas said yesterday. "I also think there are some schools who are finally cracking down. People are taking the discipline policy much more seriously."

Of the 33 suspensions recorded through Dec. 2, 26 were served out of school. In seven cases, the student was allowed to remain in school but outside the classroom. . . . .

Vallas said suspending kindergarten students was sometimes necessary.

Educators will occasionally use suspensions to get parents' attention, he said. Parents are asked to come to school for a conference when returning a child from suspension.

"Sometimes teachers and the principal will say: 'We're going to send kids home until we get a little help,' " he said.

Other districts polled yesterday said kindergarten suspensions were rare. . . .

Gloucester Township's public school district, the largest kindergarten-to-eighth-grade district in New Jersey with just over 8,000 students, has not suspended a kindergartner in at least 12 years, Superintendent Robert Suessmuth said. . . .

"That's a stupid, stupid policy," said Irwin Hyman, a Temple University psychology professor who specializes in school discipline. "At the kindergarten level, what these little kids are mostly reacting to is what they've learned in their homes," he said. . . .

Note: On the same day this story appeared, the New York Times ran a piece on the yoga curriculum for the 120 kindergartners in Briar Cliff, Westchester County, New York: "So many times, we tell children to calm down, said the teacher, "but we don't give them any tools to get there. Yoga does."

Indeed.

Equal Education Opportunity: In Philadelphia, five-year-olds get suspended; in Briar Cliff, they get yoga.

— Susan Snyder
Suspensions Rise for Philadelphia's Kindergartners
Philadelphia Inquirer
Dec. 14, 2002
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/education/4733393.htm

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