Educators Helping Students With Behavior Challenges

Students with Behavior Problems Should Just Be Suspended!

For many students with chronic behavior problems, suspension is not the meaningful consequence it is intended to be and often does not result in the student's changing his or her behavior for the better upon return to school. Many students do not want to be in school, which for them is synonymous with rejection and failure; for them, suspension is actually reinforcing the problem behavior. The reality is that many times, students are not adequately supervised outside school and therefore spend their time engaging in their preferred activities such as watching television or playing video games. Time away from the educational environment certainly does not facilitate the progress of at-risk students who are already academically and socially disengaged from school. When they return, they've missed even more instruction and have fallen further behind academically. These kids, viewed as troublemakers, certainly are not the ones their peers typically want to hang out with—unless they are other at-risk students in search of a peer group.

Many administrators we work with say that parents of other students in their school complain and put pressure on them to suspend students with behavior problems so that their child's learning environment is not disrupted. "My child's education should not suffer and he shouldn't have to put up with that'' is a common opinion we hear. The fact is that schools using only punishment strategies such as suspension have increased rates of vandalism, aggression, truancy, and school dropout, which actually promote antisocial behavior.¹² These same parents complain when these type of problems increase in their neighborhood. In addition, part of preparing students for real life is exposing them to and teaching them to deal with all of the problems they will eventually face in society, including peers who exhibit challenging behavior.

Even if suspension is a meaningful and undesirable consequence for a student with behavior challenges, it still may not be an appropriate intervention. Although it may in some cases decrease an undesirable behavior, it does not teach a more appropriate behavioral response. The student may learn to fear or dislike the person giving the punishment (educators) and the place associated with it (school), certainly not the intended outcome. So in actuality, suspension does little more than provide educators with temporary relief from an uncomfortable and frustrating situation. This may be needed at times, but then it should be called what it is—a break for the school staff—and not be considered effective behavior management. In fact, "there is currently no evidence that suggests suspension or expulsion changes the behavior of difficult students. Rather, for troublesome or at-risk students, the most well-documented outcome of suspension appears to be further suspension and eventually school drop-out.''¹³

Clearly suspension is not supported by common sense or research, and in an era of mandated evidence-based practices, it should be used sparingly.

Punishment Works for Me!

We knowwhat you are thinking: "But kids shouldn'tbe thisway.'' "I'm already overwhelmed, overworked, and underpaid.'' "My punitive behavior management practices have worked well for me for [fill in the blank] years.'' We hear you.

The truth is that punitive approaches will work for about 80 to 90 percent of the student population as far as controlling behavior. But they do not develop personal responsibility or teach life skills and simply do not work for students at risk for or those who already have chronic behavioral challenges.