This is the second in a three-part series on the use of exclusionary discipline in public schools. A regular Source feature, Undercurrents explores issues, ideas and events as they develop beneath the surface in the Virgin Islands community.
While there is concern nationally that public schools are failing to serve troublesome students and are instead pushing them out of the classroom, Virgin Islands education officials say that’s not a common problem in the territory. At least not now.
“Maybe a couple years ago,” said St. Croix Superintendent Gary Molloy. “But there’s been a real effort to make the punishment fit the crime.”
St. Thomas-St. John Superintendent Jeanette Smith said, “We do not have a lot of expulsions. We try to avoid expulsions if the child is under 18.” Likewise, she said, suspensions “are declining.”
In the 2009-10 school year, there were 1,613 instances of exclusionary discipline in public schools throughout the territory – that is 1,611 suspensions and two expulsions.
With a total public school population that year of 15,493, that works out to an exclusionary discipline rate of 10.4 percent – more than twice what the V.I. Board of Education says is acceptable as a maximum.
But the next year, the rate was down to 8 percent, so with a population of 15,747, there were 1,264 suspensions and two expulsions.
And in the 2011-12 school year – the most recent for which figures are available – the rate had dropped to 5.9 percent. There was some bad news that year too, however, as far more students were expelled than in the previous two years. There were 909 suspensions and 18 expulsions.
Keeping the exclusionary discipline rate low requires constant vigilance.
“Sometimes it’s almost inevitable” that a student is suspended because of bad behavior, Smith said, adding that teachers have to maintain order in the classroom or they can’t teach.
She said, “The Board of Education has a discipline outline that schools are expected to follow.”
Molloy said, “We’re trying to stick to the Board of Education’s requirements.”
The board’s discipline policy, which is posted on its website, is minutely detailed.
It includes four levels of infractions, lists the types of discipline that may be used to address each, notes those offenses that must be reported up the administrative chain and/or to the police, and spells out the procedures required for implementing the punishment. In all instances, parental contact is required.
Level I infractions, the least serious, are listed as cheating, classroom disruption, disorderly conduct, disrespect for others, dress code violations, failure to report for detention, giving false or misleading information to school personnel, insubordination, misconduct on the school bus, using profane, obscene or abusive language or materials, repeated tardiness, unauthorized absence, and a catch-all “Other.”
Suspension is not an approved punishment for any Level I offense, except in cases in which the infraction is repeated or habitual.
Level II infractions include minor fights and threats, vandalism, misconduct on the school bus which interferes with its safe operation and theft of an item with less than $10 value, among other things. These may merit in-school suspension. In such cases, a student is out of the classroom but in a supervised environment within the school. Suspensions generally are for no more than 10 days, but can be fewer.
Things get serious at Level III and beyond, or as Molloy says, “that’s where the rubber meets the road.” The board describes Level III infractions as “major acts of misconduct.” They include but are not limited to “repeated acts of misconduct, serious disruptions of the orderly conduct of school, threats to the health, safety, and property of self or others, and acts of serious misconduct.”
Major acts of misconduct must be reported immediately to the school administrator designated and “may result in immediate removal of the student from the school or extra/co-curricular activity.”
Among the violations listed for Level III are the use of alcohol or over-the-counter drugs, assault and battery, breaking and entering, lighting fireworks or firecrackers, gang activity, gross insubordination and open defiance, possession of contraband (including weapons) and trespassing.
Such violations can merit suspension from school for one to 10 days, among other possible punishments.
Level IV infractions are considered so grave that they result in a mandatory 10-day school suspension as well as the possibility of expulsion. They include more serious versions of Level III infractions and things such as bomb threats, possession or transmitting illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia, and police charges.
Special safeguards for special needs students
As is the case in many school jurisdictions across the country, the Virgin Islands’ exclusionary discipline rates were disproportionately high for students with disabilities.
But now, Molloy said, the board requires a “manifestation determination hearing.” If a special needs student is being considered for expulsion, there must be a meeting of a staffing committee, according to the board’s discipline policy.
“This committee may include such persons as the principal, staffing chairperson, counselor, teacher, psychologist, director of special education, and the parent or guardian,” the policy reads. “The student may be invited to attend. Persons empowered to make placement decisions must be included on the staffing committee.”
It’s the committee’s job to determine if the student’s offense is caused by his/her disability. If it is, the student may not be expelled. Instead, Education must find an alternative. These include, but aren’t limited to:
– continuation in the present program, with some modification;
– a reduced day program;
– transferal to a more restrictive environment;
– attendance for special education classes only;
-the student may come to the school campus at the end of the school day for the instructional program;
– home instruction;
– other options or a combination of the above.
Both Molloy and Smith said schools must pay close attention to ensure special needs students aren’t pushed out of the educational system.
The extra step of the committee determination “has done a lot for us in terms of reducing suspensions,” Molloy said.
(Next: Blocking the “school to prison pipeline,” including education alternatives for troubled youth.)
