Expulsion and suspension is really the only punishments that schools can give out. While I do recognize the short comings of the practice, it is really all there is to deal with serious problem students.
One of the criticisms is that expulsion is not a solution, turning these problem kids out into the streets just results in gangs and an increase in crime because there is often nobody at home during the day. Agreed, this is a problem. However leaving them in the classroom is also a problem.
Remember we are not talking about kids that are making the occasional distasteful wisecrack in class, we are talking about bullying, threatening, destructive behavior that makes it difficult if not impossible to conduct class. This behavior is often repeated over and over again. The student receives a short in-school suspension or an out of school suspension, in which they are gone from the classroom for a few days but return again with the same attitude, sometimes even worse.
Other students are as frustrated as the teacher seeing disrespectful, mean kids returned to the classroom over and over again. If someone can call a teacher Fu.... B... in the classroom in front of other kids and they are back a few days later laughing about it ... its a problem. I can promise you that they are not treating their classmates with respect. Learning in this environment is difficult.
While it might be true that putting them out on the street is not a solution, keeping them in a classroom is also not a solution. Perhaps it's time for society to get together and try to propose a real solution to the problem.
In the mean time, I hope the policy has some teeth to it.
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