High School Suspends 500 Students, Half The Student Body-Pennsylvania

I would suggest that most of the parents are unaware that their children are not showing up to class. The principal is drawing everyone's attention to a problem that requires school and home to address together.

The school's tough stance against tardiness and unexcused absences was launched by the principal, Lisa Love, who said she could not improve academic achievement there if students don't show up.

"The problem I've noticed here as principal is that students are coming to school but they are not going to classes when they get here," said Love, who began leading the school at the end of January. "Many parents send their kids to school and they're thinking they're going to class. I needed to reach out because of the enormous number not going to class."

Instead of reporting to class, students congregate in hallways, restrooms, gymnasiums and other nooks and corners of the expansive school building, Love said.

Love said she needed to do something "radical" to get the attention of students, parents and the community.

"If you're not in class, all you're here to do then is to wreak havoc upon the school and disrupt the work that we are trying to do here," she said. "And that's to focus on student achievement."

http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/03/nearly_half_the_student_popula.html
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I thought this statement, taken from the article, was troubling and ignorant.

Love, who spoke with local media on Wednesday, said the school needed a “radical” shift to get students back in the classroom.

I guess I don't see how suspending kids from school is a radical shift that will get them back into the classroom. It sounds like a person who is frustrated and fed up, not a person that is in control of the situation.

IMO you can't win over high school age kids with a stick or by putting your foot down.
 
Aunt Bea said:
I thought this statement, taken from the article, was troubling and ignorant.

Love, who spoke with local media on Wednesday, said the school needed a “radical” shift to get students back in the classroom.

I guess I don't see how suspending kids from school is a radical shift that will get them back into the classroom. It sounds like a person who is frustrated and fed up, not a person that is in control of the situation.

IMO you can't win over high school age kids with a stick or by putting your foot down.
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How can you win over high school students? I agree with you.
 
lol - I remember going to a parent-teacher conference in, oh, about 1980, where the chemistry(?) teacher told us that it was surprising that our son was able to get an A in the class since he had been absent 12 times in the first semester.

Silence.

Uh, teacher, we are not aware of our son being absent even 1 time. Later discussion with son revealed his girl friend du jour had a study hall that same time so he would cut class to spend a little quality time with her. He also knew he could have 12 absences without parents being notified. Totally gaming the system. That's what kids do.
 
Hoot N Annie said:
lol - I remember going to a parent-teacher conference in, oh, about 1980, where the chemistry(?) teacher told us that it was surprising that our son was able to get an A in the class since he had been absent 12 times in the first semester.

Silence.

Uh, teacher, we are not aware of our son being absent even 1 time. Later discussion with son revealed his girl friend du jour had a study hall that same time so he would cut class to spend a little quality time with her. He also knew he could have 12 absences without parents being notified. Totally gaming the system. That's what kids do.
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Absolutely. Which is why it should've been made clear to the students just showing up for attendance won't necessarily keep them out of trouble. Problem here is that the absent students are not getting As. I think I saw where that school only had a 30% graduation rate-yikes.

Too many offenses diminished now a days. I remember being paddled for too many lates, not class cuts or absences.
 
Maybe part of the issue though too, is that when kids get lousy marks, they blame the teacher/school/overly hard work or whatever and the parents fall for it, engage in blaming the teacher too. And with this, the school is showing that that it's not the teacher/work too hard, but that it's actually that the kids aren't showing up.

My sister did that for a few months in high school. In the front door when my mom dropped her off on her way to work, and right out the back door. Kids eh?
 
This is a school that has had issues and problems for several years. The school is located fairly central in Harrisburg and is largely made up of inner city youths. HHS is a nightmare with discipline issues, tardiness and absenteeism. Police walk the hallways and check-in and screen students reporting for school in the mornings while they walk through a metal detection device. The school district is also in financial ruins and is run by the city.

It is just an all around bad situation. The majority of the kids have bad home lives and no structure in their life. You can't help, but to feel bad for them. The teachers do the best that they can for the students that do want to learn and the others are fairly free to do whatever, so long as they are not disruptive ion the classroom.

When I worked, I had visited this school on several occasions to question students regarding crimes that have happened and their names have been mentioned as being either taking part in the commission of the crime or as a possible witness.
 
Ruthanne said:
How can you win over high school students? I agree with you.
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I think you treat them like near-adults instead of like children. You ask them how the school can be improved and you LISTEN to and implement as many of their suggestions as are workable. My granddaughter attends an alternative high school because she has Tourette's Syndrome and liked the idea of the no-bullying policy at this school. The administration works very hard at listening to their students. They call the teachers by their first names which I'm not all that fond of, but it seems to give them more of a "we're in this together" attitude. They have an active student government, and have frequent group meetings where the administration asks students for their input. They have a Leadership class that deals with building up the school and student body. It's an elective class that is very popular. The administration adopts as many student ideas as they possibly can. The students take their input seriously and aren't asking for silly things. They respect the school and administration because they feel respected.

They have pretty strict rules about certain things, especially not respecting the school, the staff and their fellow students. A student recently scribbled profanity on another student's art work which was on display something that had never happened before in the school. The administration wanted to give the offending student another chance, but the students said NO...if you have a zero tolerance policy, it should be ZERO tolerance. The students don't know who the offending student is, so their input isn't about whether the offending student is popular kid or not. They haven't come up with a final solution yet, but they are asking students for their input before the decision is made. The administration doesn't have to agree with the students, but they DO have to listen to them and share the reasoning behind their final decision. It isn't so much about winning them over as it is respecting and being respected.
 
My late husband taught for two years in a alternative high school, which was where three school districts sent their "problem" kids. This was considered the "last chance" for these kids. These were the hard-core druggies, the teacher-punchers, the burn-down-the-bleachers ones. Their next step was a juvie jail.

He said he felt that he was nothing but a caretaker. The kids didn't want to be there, they were high and/or drunk most of the time, most of the teachers had given up. It was next to impossible to teach the kids anything. They were just killing time until they were able to drop out of school and become full-time degenerates.

He always said it was the hardest two years of his life. He tried and tried and tried, all to no avail.
 
jujube said:
My late husband taught for two years in a alternative high school, which was where three school districts sent their "problem" kids. This was considered the "last chance" for these kids. These were the hard-core druggies, the teacher-punchers, the burn-down-the-bleachers ones. Their next step was a juvie jail.

He said he felt that he was nothing but a caretaker. The kids didn't want to be there, they were high and/or drunk most of the time, most of the teachers had given up. It was next to impossible to teach the kids anything. They were just killing time until they were able to drop out of school and become full-time degenerates.

He always said it was the hardest two years of his life. He tried and tried and tried, all to no avail.
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I hear the same stories from teachers from regular classrooms. Glorified baby sitting. Also many schools districts provide or offer low cost baby day care/baby sitting with many forcing their kids to stay at school/the baby sitting room until late afternoon even though they aren't in extra curricular activities. Sadly too many parents view school this way. Those kids wind up with an attitude.

After reading several articles on this suspension I think it was as much about drawing the parents attention as much as anything. Some parents responded to the suspensions, it those that don't that should be the worry.
 
jujube said:
My late husband taught for two years in a alternative high school, which was where three school districts sent their "problem" kids. This was considered the "last chance" for these kids. These were the hard-core druggies, the teacher-punchers, the burn-down-the-bleachers ones. Their next step was a juvie jail.

He said he felt that he was nothing but a caretaker. The kids didn't want to be there, they were high and/or drunk most of the time, most of the teachers had given up. It was next to impossible to teach the kids anything. They were just killing time until they were able to drop out of school and become full-time degenerates.

He always said it was the hardest two years of his life. He tried and tried and tried, all to no avail.
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I know that's the way it is in too many schools. Fortunately, my granddaughter is in an alternative school that requires quite a selection process to get in. They have some druggies, but they're druggies who don't get high at school and do their homework and are respectable while in school. You have to maintain a specific GPA and maintain appropriate behavior in order to stay there. Thankfully the kids there WANT to get an education but need something different from "normal" schooling. For my granddaughter, it's her Tourette's...she was treated abominably in regular public school, because of her squeaks and body jerking. In this school, people tell her it's "cute" if they mention it at all. Her self esteem, interest in education and GPA have soared here.

My niece, however, is a teacher in a public junior high school where they've mainstreamed everybody. She has one student who "poops" on other student's desks when he gets frustrated forcing her to clear all the kids out of class and a bio-hazard team comes in and cleans it up. Sometimes he does it 2 or 3 times per day...imagine how THAT affects the other students' ability to learn! Another student sets fires. Suddenly the papers on the child's desk next to him will go up in flames, endangering and frightening everybody. The school district says these kids have a "right" to be in "regular" school...apparently the other kids don't have a right to an uninterrupted school day. I do understand why your husband felt the way he did. I know my niece is totally frustrated with this system.
 

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