What is the solution to the very real problem presented to teachers when there are disruptive students who consistently deprive other students of educational opportunities? If we don’t remove those disrupters, we send a message that it will be tolerated and everyone suffers. Continually disruptive students should be removed from the classroom and placed in an alternative learning environment.

Lorraine Parquet, retired
(via Facebook)

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Students absolutely need to be removed if they are a danger to themselves and others, but does suspension work or is it a quick and easy fix? They come back in a few days but does the behavior change? Does a 5-year-old understand the consequences of a suspension when he or she gets to stay home for a few days? I don’t know the answers.

Len Nicki Rogers, PS 40, Brooklyn
(via Facebook)

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We do not suspend younger students in Albany and it does not work — all students suffer. If you are not going to suspend, there has to be a planning room with a qualified person equipped to lead students out of crisis and give them the tools and training they need to self-help. Letting them continue to blow up your room eliminates instructional time for every single student in that room. 

Debra Calvo McNicholas, Albany, New York (former chapter leader and teacher in District 22)
(via Facebook)

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Interventions are great and work like 95 percent of the time (especially with younger kids), but bottom line: Sometimes a child needs to be removed from a situation for his or her own safety as well as the safety of others.

Cameron Faraday, New Visions Charter HS
for the Humanities 2, Bronx
(via Facebook)

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In-school suspensions work better. Students’ bad behavior is not rewarded with days off from school. Their class work and homework can be given to them, their behavior can be addressed by school counselors, and parents don’t need to find child care to watch them at home.

Alan B. Cohen, Orange County, California (formerly a teacher at IS 292, Brooklyn)
(via Facebook)