Southside Pride

There has been a lot of press coverage about the high number of children who were suspended from the Minneapolis Public Schools recently. It was reported that about 20,000 suspensions occurred over the school year 2000-2001. This number is very alarming. It would appear that out of 49,000 students about 41 percent had been suspended sometime over the school year. Many of those suspensions are multiple referrals for about 9,000 children, with the largest group of suspensions being from the middle school grades 6-8, which represents about 18 percent of the entire student body. This is an alarming figure!

I have been asked many times over the past few weeks about how children as young as kindergarten and first grade could be suspended, what can a little child possibly do at that age to get suspended? In most cases, young children entering school for the first time mirror the behaviors they have learned in their home, family and community life. Some children are in need of mental health services and, despite efforts of the county social service agencies and early childhood programs, many children are never seen or screened for any behavior or emotional problems before they enter school. Some parents come the first day, or within the first two weeks of school to register their child or children, after the year has started. So for many kids, the first time their teachers see them is the first day of school or in some cases, several days or weeks after school has begun.

My child's first day of kindergarten provides a telling example of this. When my child arrived at her bus stop after school 7 years ago, I asked her how her first day of school went. She told me that a teacher went to the hospital in an ambulance and that she was on the floor crying when they took her away another child in her class kicked the teacher and broke her leg.

I was horrified. My little girl had never witnessed anything like that! It turns out the teacher, who was 5 1/2 months pregnant, had been kicked so severely and was so completely blindsided that the child had dislocated her knee. She was the physical education teacher and was unable to fulfill her duties for several days after this incident. Unfortunately, I have heard many similar tales from other teachers in several schools since then.

Quality early childhood programs with competent, well-trained staff are our best hope for spotting behavior or readiness problems. Sadly, our state is ranked 50th in school readiness education funding, according to a recent Education Week Survey. If there were more quality programs in school readiness programs, then more children would be identified as needing help. Our ECFE programs do provide opportunities to spot such behavior. When potential problems are observed, interventions are taken and those children receive services early on that will help them learn appropriate behaviors.

The citywide discipline policy states that children will be suspended for the following offenses: 1. possession of a weapon, alcohol or drugs, 2. assault, sexual harassment or sexual violence, 3. violating school bus safety guidelines. All of these behaviors put students and staff in harm's way. The safety of the students and staff has to be our top priority in these situations. Another alarming fact is that in last year's student survey done at the 5th, 8th, and 11th grade, nearly half reported that disruptive behavior of students was keeping them from learning.

Superintendent Johnson had this to say about the suspensions and what she has put into place to address the problem:

"When the first Measuring Up report came out in February 2000, one of the most troubling statistics was the number of suspensions—almost 22,000 (generated by 9,800 students) in the 1998-99 school year. The number of African-American students suspended was also very troubling. African-American students made up 44 percent of the total enrollment, yet they accounted for 74 percent of the total number of suspensions for the 1998-99 school year.

We are disappointed that this has not changed substantially in the past two years. The largest reason for suspensions is fighting. The majority of suspensions occur in the middle grades (6-8). The district has taken a three-pronged approach to tackling the high number of suspensions and the over-representation of African-American students among those suspended."

1. Communicate Behavior Expectations
2. Give Teachers More & Better Strategies
3. Establish intervention programs for specific students"

The district is faced with student behavior issues that society is hard pressed to fix. While some of the behavior problems may stem from insufficient leadership and teacher experience, the vast majority of problems stem from behavior arising from situations and circumstances over which teachers and district staff have no control. The schools cannot solve the problems of misbehavior without help from the community.

My colleague, Reverend Al Gallmon, worked with the district to organize an outreach effort to the many faith communities of the city, enlisting their help in addressing the many needs of our children. This effort calls for synagogues, mosques and churches to "adopt" a school and with staff to provide extra opportunities to tutor and to foster meaningful adult relationships with children who are in need of such connections in their lives. These partnerships do not include spiritual training or religious indoctrination but rather give children extra time and situations that allow them to continue the learning and positive reinforcement of self worth.

In early May, more than 300 school, community and partners in the faith community met to discuss ways that we could bring even more people to the table to deal with this challenging issue. While some of these programs are now in operation, there is a greater need to include more of the faith community in helping many of our students who have strong and positive relationships consistently lacking in their young lives.

We also depend on the many wonderful volunteers to help with so many functions within our schools. We are truly blessed to have so many outstanding volunteers. This year the Betty Jane Reed Volunteer of the Year award was given to Dawn Malcolm, a Minneapolis Public School mom at Pillsbury School. If all our wonderful volunteers were to be paid at the rate of about $16.00 per hour 8 hours per week, the combined total of all our volunteers would cost about $2.5 million dollars! So many of our children are greatly benefited by the partnerships with communities of faith. For further information, call the Volunteer Coordinator for the MPS, 668-3880.

As always, feel free to contact us by phone, e-mail or letter. Phone numbers for individual School Board members can be obtained by calling 668-0000. The address for letters is 807 NE Broadway, Minneapolis, MN 55413. E-mail addresses are available on line at the Web site www.mpls.k12.mn.us. Regular School Board meetings are at 4 p.m. the second and last Tuesday of the month, and can be seen live on Public Access channel 15. The can also be seen in replay throughout the week as well as on KBEM Jazz 88.5 FM radio.