Last year, a seventh-grade boy in Baltimore County was suspended twice for minor infractions, including giving what he believed was a playful slap, called a birthday lick, to the arm of another student, his mother said. When he later threw a cut-up tennis ball into the back of the head of a classmate, without injuring anyone, he was sent to an alternative school for 45 school days.
"I think this whole movement toward zero tolerance gave too many people license to say, `You're a disruptive force in my class. I don't want you here,'" said Eugene Patterson, a member of the Anne Arundel school board.
Local educators, national experts and even critics of zero-tolerance policies agree that students who bring a gun to school, attack a teacher, distribute drugs or are guilty of other serious violations should receive long suspensions or expulsions.
But there is an intensifying debate in Maryland over how to deal with students who commit less serious acts. Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City have changed course this school year and are encouraging principals to reduce suspensions for lesser offenses. They believe students who are suspended are more likely to fall behind and fail state tests.
Some educators who are trying new approaches to discipline think that students who do something wrong, particularly in elementary and middle schools, need to be taught to behave correctly. "We don't send a kid to the office because they fail a math test; we re-teach," said Sally Pelham, an assistant superintendent in Anne Arundel County.
A few school systems, including Anne Arundel's, are trying to reduce suspensions by giving teachers a better understanding of the children's culture.
The children who are most harmed by disciplinary policies are the most troubled students, Sundius said. They are suspended multiple times as a principal tries to rid a school of a discipline problem, but often no one tries to understand the cause of their misbehavior and fix the problem.
Signs that Deontray Brown was headed for trouble appeared in fourth grade in a city elementary school when he was suspended for throwing objects across the classroom in fits of frustration, his mother, Kenya Lee, said. She asked for counseling for her son, but he received 10 minutes a week, she said, because the social worker came to his school only one day a week and had to divide her time.
"I wanted help, but I couldn't get it from anyone," said Lee, who is a single mother.
