Rampant student suspensions at PSS

From about 400 cases five years ago, the number of public school students in middle and high school who have been suspended has risen to 3,000 and counting during the current school year.

The figure is based on the Public School System’s School Reform Committee suspension data culled from eight public and middle schools on island, covering school years 2003 through 2008 and partial records of 2009.

Galvin Deleon Guerrero, chair of the board’s School Reform Committee, expressed concern yesterday on the impact the “alarming” rate of suspensions would have in the number of graduating students each year.

Just by reviewing the data, “abuses” by principals and administrators were quite evident, he said.

Deleon Guerrero cited data recorded in school year 2007-2008 where a total of 766 students were suspended due to betel nut chewing and tobacco possession in schools.

“While overall student enrollment in all junior and high schools has remained constant, the number of suspensions has tripled in the past couple of years,” Deleon Guerrero said, adding that the number of suspensions varies dramatically between schools and even within individual schools from year to year.

According to the data, PSS posted 430 total suspensions in 2003. This went up to 523 the next school year. Suspensions reached 619 in school year 2005-2006.

In school year 2006-2007, the Curriculum and Instruction Office recorded a total of 1,362 suspensions. The number went up more than a hundredfold to 2,923 the following school year, 2007-2008.

With the 2008-2009 school year not due until August, the number of suspensions have already reached the 3,000 mark, according to the School Reform Committee report.

The highest number of suspension was noted in the special education programs in the junior and high schools.

Data showed that in 2006-2007 alone, Marianas High School issued the highest number of suspensions with 955. Saipan Southern High School was a far second with 164, followed by Kagman High School (160), Hopwood Jr. High School (44), Rota High School (23), Chacha Oceanview (8), Rota Jr. High School (6), and Tinian High School (2).

In 2007-2008, the highest suspension rate was recorded by Saipan Southern with 1,784 cases, followed by MHS (676), Kagman High (227), Hopwood (105), Tinian High (60), Chacha Oceanview (33), Rota High School (22), and Rota Jr. High School (16).

Deleon Guerrero emphasized that based on board regulation 2606, “the discipline regulations for suspension and expulsion are intended to supplement standard day-to-day disciplinary actions taken at the school level.”

He said the policy mandates that principals should exhaust the standard day-to-day corrective disciplinary measures and hold parent conferences before suspending or expelling a student, unless the conduct is serious enough to warrant immediate suspension or expulsion.

“[But] based on the data compiled and input gathered from a broad spectrum of PSS stakeholders…it is the belief that BOE regulation 2606 is not being followed as many students are being suspended without principals or their designees fully exhausting standard day-to-day corrective disciplinary measures,” Deleon Guerrero said.

He added that these measures include in-house detention, parent conferences, counseling sessions, and campus cleanup.

Deleon Guerrero also believes that non-compliance with the regulation could be the result of a lack of adequate counseling, or the lack of training in discipline behavior modification by counselors.

“It appears that many counselors are diverted from counseling work by additional duties and responsibilities such as teaching, administrative paper work, and lunch supervision,” he added.

Deleon Guerrero believes that noncompliance with the regulation is an administrative matter that does not require a policy change from the board.