What Are We Doing About School Suspensions | TJ Rumler | TEDxGreenville

[Music] I missed so many days of school because my mom's boyfriend was beating her up a lot so I fakes it so I could stay home and try to protect her when I was in sixth grade I told my dad I hope he died that day the thing is he did die that day of a heart attack while I was at school and now when my mom's mad at me she says you're not gonna kill me like you did your dad I got jumped a few months back and these kids they had a chain around my neck and I just knew that I was gonna die but now those kids and that gang they're at my school and I'm scared to go back because I just know they're gonna get me again well I I I had to leave my childhood behind me a long time ago as a school social worker somebody who grew up about a mile around the corner in the Old West Greenville I have experience with these stories on a personal and a professional level in fact those were quotes from some of the students that I have the privilege of working with on a daily basis those kids and their stories or why I fight like hell every day to try to make sure we can do everything we can to keep them in school versus taking our chances wear them out on the street nice Nino's so na sang today they made Corazon I would stand here today and argue with you that is our professional duty in our ethical duty to make sure we do everything we can to quit suspending kids for nonviolent infractions all right we know that a lot of our students are growing up in traumatic environments in bad neighborhoods and bad homes and this causes them from tremendous problems when it comes to their ability to feel valued and to feel safe so what you may look at a kid and you see well that's an oppositional care that's a defiant kid somebody else they might see an abuse survivor acting in self-preservation so what that can turn into is just maybe sometimes when we kick kids out of school for disrespect or disrupting schools we may be actually punishing protective biological responses that are colliding with a classroom environment that we have not equipped to handle that Churchill said a man does what he must in spite of personal consequences and obstacles and dangers and pressures and that is the basis for human morality so in that spirit I'm here today to argue that we must stop suspending kids for benign things I'm gonna tell you why but first before I go forward I want to mention two things first it's important to note that when I refer to suspensions I'm talking about out of school suspensions and secondly we obviously have to keep our schools safe no debate I'm not here to advocate that we excuse kids bringing weapons to school I'm talking about non violent things like my student who last month got suspended five days out of school for having a cell phone in class so what's the big deal about suspensions here are some things that they've been shown to them they don't engage our parents their take they're seriously not making our schools safer they don't even stop the behaviors that we're trying to stop 30 to 50 percent of all suspensions in America right now or repeat behaviors they're not bringing our test scores up and if I hadn't got you yet they don't even make sense financially because right now we're spending over a hundred thousand dollars per year to keep a kid locked up so what are some things suspensions will do for us they will make sure or let's say they will highly increase the chances that that student will be held back at least one grade all right they marginalize students who are already at risk students who are black and brown LGBTQ and students with disabilities a while back I was on a home visit seeing one of my one of my favorite kids they're all my favorite but he's one of my favorites and he was serving a very long suspension for something in my eyes that was silly this kid looks at me when tears running down his eyes and he says Mr T J on top of all this school stuff I just have a lot on my chest right now man I just came out to my mom as bisexual she just told me I was a and told me I just go back in the closet suspension increases the chance that a student will end up involved with a juvenile justice system and right now suspension is the number one factor the number one predictor that a kid will end up dropping out of high school on this slide you're going to see some public agencies that are openly opposed to out of school suspensions as one educator put it to me as the adult suspension is something so unprovoked something so outside of the norm that I is the adult had no other option Yeah right now according to the Department of Education we nationally are suspending almost 4 million kids every year 3 million for non-violent offences now I'm sure you're thinking that's just a bunch of punk teenagers in your head imagine I'm sure everybody in here knows an elementary school-age student picked from one now fill up the wellness arena with that kid because last year just in this state we suspended over 17,000 elementary school kids in 2014 the United States of America suspended over 5,000 preschool kids so I know what you're thinking if they're so bad why are we doing them the simple answer is it's an easy way out but it's not that easy I work with schools and speak at schools quite often I have some educator friends in the House today and I always lead with one question what's your primary goal an educator alright and you think you can guess it's not test scores it's not graduation rates it's not I'm trying to make it the summer break overwhelmingly these teachers and administrators and coaches and everybody at these schools tell me it's my goal to try to create better human beings however our schools are kind of boxed in the way of doing things right now because of outcomes measures our teachers are all a lot of times forced to teach to a test related arts programs and social-emotional initiatives are on the back burner we know that the brain is used to pendant and it takes consistent repetitive lessons to build skills like these however we a lot of times will wait till our kids are in trouble or that kid before we hit them with these one-and-done interventions that are supposed to create new behaviors if you went your whole life without working out you turn 1718 you're gonna show up at a gym and a personal trainer will be able to get you in shape looking like a model in a two-week session but that's how we treat behavior change also it is very important for me to note that we have to quit holding these kids to a higher standard than we are willing to live up to remember my kid that I mentioned earlier five days cell phone tell me you've never snuck in a text or an email during a work meeting now you want to miss work without fight without pay for five days other countries are getting this concept insurance companies get this concept remember what happened to your car insurance when you turn 25 thing that was random they understand that our brains risk reward regions are not fully developed until our mid-20s yet under what we know about suspensions and the outcomes we are quick to turn a stupid mistake made by an adolescent brain into a potentially life-altering punishment it doesn't make sense the good news is there's hope and really briefly I want to share with you a few options that are being used around the nation ideas that are increasing test scores reducing disciplinary issues reducing suspensions but what I love the most is they align with the hearts of the teachers that I know and that I get to serve because they are helping us create better human beings restorative justice restorative practices nothing new they're being used all around the country in schools of all levels restorative justice as they shift from a more traditional punitive zero tolerance approach to something that is healing it is community-based and wait for it it's designed to hold kids accountable for their actions and also teach new behaviors the goal is to make them understand what they did repair the harm and hopefully decrease the risk for future reference restorative justice would argue that discipline is not something you do to a child it is something you develop within a child mindfulness is not just a buzzword it is an amazing concept an amazing practice that is being embraced by schools like Robert W Coleman elementary school in inner-city Baltimore Robert W Coleman every morning in every afternoon leads every student in a 15-minute mix of yoga and meditation where they're actually learning to breathe Coleman also has a mindful room where students who need it can access this room and learn to resolve disputes in a healthy way and decompress and regulate emotions and enter the class again after implementing practices such as these robert w coleman saw a two-year period with no suspensions and lastly right here in our back yard we have an amazing initiative called on track greenville it is a partnership of united way Greenville health system Greenville County Schools and several other community partners on track uses an early warning response system where we're able to identify middle school students who are already at risk for not graduating once identified we can surround each student with community supports professional supports and whatever they need to get them back on track to graduate better human beings that is one hell of a charge do I know exactly how to do that no if I did folks there would be no need for this conversation I know one thing suspending our kids it's not the answer the ideas that I mentioned to you today are simply just the result of really good people like yourselves thinking outside the box and trying to keep our kids in school by doing whatever it takes I would encourage you to please look into these ideas be critical make them better encourage your school boards and your school members to do the same above all hold us accountable to do the job that we signed up to do and that's to take your kids and make them better humans you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 16,714

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Education, Childhood, Children, Education reform, Innovation, Learning, Parenting, Schools, Students, Teaching, Youth

Id: 0__TbZ89N_w

Length: 13min 7sec (787 seconds)

Published: Thu May 17 2018