[Movemout]

I guess things must have changed since I was in school lo many years ago. We used to have an assembly at the beginning of the school year and the Principal would lay out the infractions that would earn you a suspension, or expulsion, and that was that. I understand your point about teachers not having the authority to suspend students but they can look the other way or not report the infraction at all. I suspect that this kid got more than one free pass from the teaching staff who didn't want to get involved. Cussing or being late may not be specifically referred in the administrivia governing when a suspension might be ordered but I bet there are references to persistent behavior problems.

Our government run schools are a disgrace to the Nation. It is time to fix the problems or privatize the whole system.

[summer]

We used to have an assembly at the beginning of the school year and the Principal would lay out the infractions that would earn you a suspension, or expulsion, and that was that....

I actually did later teach in a school where this is what happened, and, it happened TWICE per year, at the beginning of each semester (because many students were new to the school). The entire school had to attend, and the person who laid out the rules was a male assistant principal who sought to intimiate these kids with the facts -- and, he did a good job. The school could have had a gang problem, but didn't, because he made it crystal clear what symbols constituted gang symbols and would get you thrown out of school, period. It really helped.

Too bad most schools just have teachers distribute to students the written district policy on student conduct, and leave it at that.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

>The rules of suspension, and what student misconduct qualifies as leading to suspension, are rules designed without input from teachers.

From teachers who are willing to work under them, that is. Other actual and potential teachers vote against them with their feet . . . which is part of what makes government run schools tend to be a "disgrace to the Nation."

It is time to fix the problems or [by] privatiz[ing] the whole system.

That will introduce competition for teachers and students based on the working conditions (a.k.a. "learning environment") which each school's administration delivers. I would expect reduction in pressure for higher salary, I would expect longer school years--but also happier teachers and students, and better education. And "poor Russel" to either either shape up or meet real life at an early age.

The home schooling parental tutoring movement is a straw in the wind; under the bureaucratic pressures inherent in government, "public" schools have tended to decline. Simultaneously the Internet is fabulously well suited to the mutual support of tutoring parents. Parents who are college grads are IMHO eminently entitled to wonder what magic enables the education major to support their child's learning better under the handicaps we're discussing than can the parents themselves.

And when your child comes home with 5 stitches, and his assailant's parents mount a political campaign against the school for trying to prevent a recurrance . . .