TV, No Homework Can Turn Suspensions Into Vacations

Pamela Berthold, who is Shawnte's English teacher, said she is ambivalent about suspensions that allow students to fritter away valuable time in front of a television set.

"As an employee of the school system, I comply with the policies, but on a personal level, I am conflicted," she said. "Shawnte is one of the first to raise her hand when I read a poem. But she's not allowed to make up work. . . . I happened to have a journal check, and that's a 100-point grade. Although she kept her journal current, according to the guidelines, I am supposed to put a zero in the book."

Kymber has a 4.0 grade-point average and Shawnte has a 3.7, their mother said.

But these days, when school violence often can escalate into dangerous situations, administrators suspend students who they think pose even remote threats.

Nationally, schools are doling out more suspensions to students -- some of whom receive them several times in one academic year -- for a litany of reasons: talking back to a teacher, carrying knives, cheating or using a cell phone in class.

Between 2000 and 2002, suspensions nationwide increased from 3.05 million to 3.08 million, according to the Department of Education's most recent data. In the Washington area, suspensions are increasing in Virginia but decreasing in Maryland. Between 2002 and 2004, the most recent data available, suspensions in Virginia rose from 196,000 to 223,682; in Maryland, between 2003 and 2005, they decreased from 141,504 to 124,540. School officials in the District said comparative data are not available.

Over recent years, studies have shown that minority students nationwide are suspended at a higher rate than white students, a disparity that has caught the attention of educators and civil rights leaders.

Education officials and experts agree that assignments should be given out during suspensions, especially because of heightened accountability measures in effect through the federal No Child Left Behind law.

But there is no way to know how many school districts make students do work during their suspensions, said Michael Carr, a spokesman for the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

"It's a big problem . . . if students are out for three, four, five days. That's a big chunk of time," he said. "We've always pushed for some sort of process for delivering academic work to students who are suspended so they don't fall further behind."

Stacy Skalski, director of public policy for the National Association of School Psychologists, recommends that parents devise their own lessons or homework, if only to make sure their children realize that a suspension is not a vacation.

"What's critical is that when a kid is suspended outside of school that they be held accountable for everything going on inside school," Skalski said. "If my kid got suspended for smoking, I would have him do a paper for me on what's wrong with smoking. If my kid did something to another person, I'd have my kid write a letter to the other student."