Should Schools Change The Suspension System?

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Why do we suspend so many students? Isn’t there a better way to do things? Don’t all students deserve a chance to apologize for what they did without a permanent mark on their record? All around the country, more and more kids are being suspended without hesitation from schools, many parents and educators want to change this outdated system. Although suspensions might work for some kids, schools should change their suspension system because staying home from school isn’t a punishment for most kids, after suspension many students lose their work ethic, and students won’t learn from their mistakes if just suspended.
Schools should change their system because being forced to stay home from school isn’t a punishment to most students. Journalist Brian Palmer states that “Suspension seems like a counterintuitive disciplinary tool, since many children would prefer to stay home from school, anyway.” While suspension
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Davide Bonazzi, a representative from a school that practices restorative justice states that “Under the traditional system, Cindy would’ve been suspended immediately, even though we know that suspensions significantly contribute to the likelihood that a student will eventually drop out. She would have made an enemy of the boys and their friends for the remainder of the school year — and that antagonism would be essentially promoted and encouraged by the administration’s stay-away orders and safety plans. The boys would never have known the harm they caused and how to avoid it in the future. Rather than solving a problem, everything about the traditional way of handling situations like this one only contributes to the likelihood that it will happen again.” There are some cases in which students learn from what they’ve done with suspensions, but many go right back to causing trouble without