Student misconduct can range from threatening violence to wearing the wrong pants.
School leaders respond to student misconduct with no-nonsense tactics including suspensions, where a student is temporarily banned from entering school grounds or buses. State governments and school systems establish ground rules when defining the offenses that warrant a suspension. Violence typically tops the list of egregious misconduct. Sometimes the reasons for school suspensions end up ruffling feathers within a community.
Violence
Educators adopted tougher policies against violence in the aftermath of the deadly Columbine High School massacre in Colorado in 1999, the Baltimore Sun reports. Serious wrongdoing that threatens someone else's well-being can result in an immediate suspension. These transgressions include assault, and possession of weapons, drugs or alcohol on school property. Other possible reasons for swift punishment are intimidation of peers or staff, gang activities, bomb threats, or inappropriate sexual contact.
Disruptions
Authorities usually work with the student and parents before issuing a suspension for a nonviolent offense. Administrators hold hope that a student shapes up before they have to lower the boom after repeated infractions, the Baltimore Sun says. Nonviolent but disruptive behaviors include using profanity, disobeying teachers, smoking cigarettes or wandering off school property. Educational administrators also crack down on electronic devices---such as cell phones or gaming gadgets---because of their potential to distract students during school hours.
Attendance
Educators agree that suspending a student for failing to attend classes is nothing more than honoring that youngster's wish to avoid school, reports the Baltimore Sun. Educational systems offer in-school suspensions or after-hours detentions as alternatives to forcing truant kids to stay away. Administrators historically viewed suspensions for absenteeism as methods of sending hard-hitting messages to parents and other teens that cutting classes was unacceptable. Today, suspensions that are related to chronic attendance problems are issued as a last resort.
Controversies
Some communities claim their school leaders have overstepped their boundaries. About 150 students in Indiana's Richmond Community Schools received suspensions for violating new dress codes, including a seven-year-old girl who wore patterned trousers, ABC News reports. Blond highlights resulted in a suspension for a teenager in El Paso, Texas, KFox TV reports. And in California, parents questioned the ousting of a first-grader who cut in line at recess, kicked someone in the shin and tossed a pencil, says Bakersfield.com news service.
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