We reduced the number of suspensions!

 We reduced the number of suspensions

 

The word came down from on high.   Principals you are suspending too many students.  That needs to stop.  The number of suspensions needs to come way down.  Yes sir, the principals said.

But what to do with these misbehaving kids.  Surely you don’t expect us to modify instruction or provide different incentives.  Absolutely not.

The kids need to go and here’s the plan.  Dial 911.  Call the police, tell them you need an emergency transport to the local psychiatric hospital.

One of the schools in Wicomico County, Maryland follows this scenario on average about three times a week.  Children as young as 5 are handcuffed and taken to a psychiatric unit where their parents are called to come pick them up. 

Black students and students with disabilities are much more likely to be removed in this manner.   As the number of suspensions and expulsions declined, the number of mandated trips to the ER for a psych evaluation ticked up.

Last year this happened to about one for every 100 students in Wicomico County.  Children were handcuffed and taken to the emergency room.   At least 40% of these children were twelve or younger. More than half of these kids were black even though only a little more than a third or the Wicomico population of students is African-American.  

Advocates and parents say the issue is two-fold.  First and foremost the culture is one of punishment rather than repair.  Secondly, there is a lack of trained staff to address the issues in a manner that would help rather than harm the children.

These children are terrorized by the experience of being handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car without the support of a parent.  By the time the parents can reach their children, the damage has been done.

There aren’t handcuffs small enough for some of these kids, so their hands are tied together.  Parents report that children’s hands are chaffed from the handcuffs and children are confused and terrorized.  Wicomico County uses these emergency petitions more often per capita than almost every other Maryland district for which data are available.   It is against the law to use these tactics on children whose behaviors are a manifestation of the disability.  But that hasn’t stopped Wicomico County from using these emergency petitions repeatedly on children with autism.  

School officials, of course, deny the use of these tactics for disciplinary reasons.  They could not respond to why their use far exceeded all other districts.  But, hey, the suspensions are way down and ain’t that grand.