Liz Bowie's "High suspension rate in Balto. Co." (Dec. 26) raises important issues. Cleary 10,000 Baltimore County school students suspended in one year (about 10 percent and a much higher rate than most of Maryland) sounds terrible. Furthermore, the data reveal a disproportionately high rate for special needs students and ethnic/racial minorities.
Punitive action against disruptive and/or violent students represents a national trend. In some states Tasers are used against threatening kids, and school police, resource officers and metal detectors are common.
Part of the problem results from the cruel compassion of "mainstreaming" emotionally disturbed pupils. When teachers have 30 to 40 students crowded into a classroom with one or more utterly out of control acting out one scream, threat or attention seeking behavior after another, education is vitiated. Maryland Disability Law Center lawyer Nicole Joseph says these students "act out because of their disability and are unfairly punished with suspensions."
It seems that to a reasonable and compassionate person, there is nothing "unfair" about providing students with an educational environment free of bullying, screaming, chaos, threats and vulgar disruptions. The questions might be, why are we not suspending more and why are we spending a nickel on those who should be in a hospital or other setting? Society's problems, however sad some disabled and/or impoverished students are, should not be "solved" on the backs of innocent students and their teachers.
H. L. Goldstein, Towson