Getting expelled or suspended is a common punishment for students that make serious trouble at school. However, despite being a common tradition, it may not have as much effectiveness as teachers think.

Suspension In Contrast To Expulsion

Though both of these are ultimate punishments at school, they’re different. Suspension refers to when the school authority sends a student home before it makes a long-term decision in response to the incident. On the contrary, expulsion (also known as exclusion) is when a student has to leave school permanently. Both situations happen because of a serious activity at school, which’s generally a major contravention of the code of conduct of the school.

Why It Isn’t the Ideal Decision

Providing education for children is actually the state governments’ legal responsibility. So, if a kid faces expulsion, they’ll have to find another place to receive an education, which often signifies experiencing home-schooling. If the child is only suspended, the school authority may still allow them to rejoin that school, but they still fail to take advantage of the days at school when they could learn.

Additionally, by getting suspended, children can fall behind in school, which can significantly affect them down the road. According to research, expelling students doesn’t develop their behavior or teach them anything because lots of students who face expulsion simply continue to engage in more adverse behaviors as they age. It may appear to help the school when it sends students away, but for those students, it just motivates them to make trouble somewhere else.

How Can We Fix This?

Over the years, the number of expulsions and suspensions has gone up, which means an increasing number of students are failing to benefit from school every year because of their bad behaviors. As per the data from the U.S. Department of Education, in the 2011 to 2012 school year, around 130,000 students faced expulsion. Though this number may look small compared to the huge number of students that attend school, it’s still a substantial number that we probably could have avoided.

Focusing more on bettering behaviors in school so that authorities don’t need to take these extreme steps is the simplest way to fix this problem. Teachers should have the confidence to deal with these problems in their classes to stop continuous misbehavior. If required, teachers should arrange more one-on-one sessions with students that cause trouble to identify the cause of those problems and to help develop their communication skills. When students become more comfortable in school, they’re less likely to cause trouble, which would lower the number of expulsions and suspensions.

Closing Thoughts

Though in school districts, expelling and suspending students are well-known methods of punishment, teachers should invest a greater deal of effort to develop the children’s behavior first rather than only using harsh punishment. While teachers are supposed to teach students new information and topics, they also must address children’s emotional needs. In case a student is behaving improperly, faculty at the schools need to talk to them logically before the student’s actions deteriorate.