Pubdate: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 Source: Guelph Mercury (CN ON) Copyright: 2006 Guelph Mercury Newspapers Limited Contact: http://www.guelphmercury.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1418 Author: Greg Mercer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) SAFE SCHOOLS ACT REVIEWED Task Force Report Finds Inconsistencies In Implementation And In The Number Of Students Suspended Local education officials expect fewer kids will be kicked out of school if changes to a controversial safe schools law are adopted. In a report submitted last week, a provincial task force spearheaded by Guelph-Wellington MPP Liz Sandals argues the five-year-old Safe Schools Act causes schools to focus more on expelling and suspending students than preventing the behaviour that leads them to that point. The review also found there's no consistency in how the so-called zero-tolerance act is applied. Some school boards suspended very few students while others had a rate of suspension of 36 per cent. "From board to board, and from school to school, there's huge variability in the way they have implemented the Safe Schools Act and in the number of kids who are actually being suspended," Sandals said. Education Minister Sandra Pupatello says the Liberal government will take the summer to review the report. Last year, the Upper Grand District School Board recorded 3,015 suspensions in its 11 high schools, which hold about 12,200 students. That's twice the per capita rate of the Waterloo Region District School Board, where 2,491 suspensions were handed out last year among roughly 20,300 high school students. Maggie McFadzen, spokesperson for Upper Grand, wouldn't hazard a guess as to why her board's suspension rate would be so much higher than the neighbouring board's. At Wellington Catholic District School Board, there were 253 suspensions among roughly 2,400 high school students in the 2004-05 school year. That's almost half the rate of the Waterloo Catholic District, which handed out 1,222 suspensions among a high school student body of 6,800. Don Drone, director of the Catholic board, suggested that's proof his board's focus on so-called graduated discipline, or giving students progressively tougher punishment rather than immediate suspension, is working. Partnering with city police to increase their presence in high schools has also helped curb violent behaviour that previously might have got a student booted out of school, he said. "You don't overreact to something that can be corrected. But if somebody messes up and it's corrected without a suspension, and they do it again, you have to up the consequences," he said. But Drone conceded the act is causing the number of suspensions in his district to jump. The year before the act came into effect, there were 182 suspensions in the Wellington Catholic board. That same year, there were 3,027 in Upper Grand high schools. Students can be kicked out of school for a number of reasons, including smoking on school property or chronic absences. The act imposes automatic suspensions for drug trafficking or assault. McFadzen said the implementation of the Safe Schools Act was responsible for a jump in the number of expulsions in the public board. In 2000-01, the year before the act came into effect, there were less than six students expelled from Upper Grand schools. The following year, that number jumped to 34. In the 2004-05 school year, the number of expulsions in Upper Grand was 45, including four at the elementary school level. Recent expulsion numbers from the Catholic board weren't readily available, although there were six in 2003-04. While expulsions between boards may vary less than suspensions, there's great differences when it comes to the programs available to kids who are expelled. In Upper Grand, for instance, students on long-term expulsions are offered a chance to go into an alternative discipline program in Waterloo because there is none locally. Long-term expulsions are considered permanent, or until a child completes an alternative education program. Sandals' task force also proposes taking away from principals the power to expel students. That's a decision only the school boards should make, the report suggests. Both McFadzen and Drone said the impact of such a change would be minimal. The practice locally, they say, has been for principals to defer expulsions to the school board, anyway. The report also suggests doing away with short-term expulsions, which can last up to 21 days. McFadzen approves of that idea, because there are no alternative education programs provided for students with short-term expulsions. "They're just out of school and they're not learning," she said. "These kids aren't benefiting from not being in school." Sandals said her task force wants the government to review alternative education programs, such as the one in Waterloo, to see if the money could be better spent to make the services more accessible among school boards. The Upper Grand Board recorded 1,994 suspensions at the elementary level last year. Overall, suspensions were down five per cent from 2004-03. At the Wellington Catholic board, there were 108 suspensions in elementary schools. That district's total suspensions were up over nine per cent from the previous year. McFadzen and Drone said their boards need more resources and partnerships with community agencies -- particularly those that specialize in children's mental health -- to better deal with students' behaviour. Drone also took exception to the report's assertion that children of minority backgrounds are more likely to be suspended under the act. Sandals, a former trustee on the Upper Grand board, said criticism of the act as a 'zero-tolerance' law is inaccurate. She said the act actually makes room for so-called progressive discipline. "We're saying 'when something happens, there needs to be a consequence. But the consequence isn't automatically throwing the student out, there should be a range of consequences," she said. "There are kids being suspended or expelled who can be dealt with in other less extreme ways." The MPP added that it's in society's interest to keep children in school. Those who are kicked out are more likely to not finish school, become involved in crime and earn a lower income. "A zero-tolerance policy is working at cross-purposes with what all the research tells us to do, which is to keep kids engaged in learning," Sandals said. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek