Kids or Criminals? Preschool Suspended a 3-Year-Old… Five Times

Kids
occasionally behave very badly and need to be sent home from
school. It’s tough to imagine a 3-year-old deserving such a severe
punishment, though—not once, not twice, but five separate
times.

At
DelawareOnline.com, Tunette Powell writes about the many, many
suspensions handed down to her sons—ages 4 and 3—by overzealous
preschool teachers and administrators:

I agreed his behavior was inappropriate, but I was shocked that
it resulted in a suspension.

For weeks it seemed as if JJ was on the chopping block. He was
suspended two more times, once for throwing another chair and then
for spitting on a student who was bothering him at breakfast.
Again, these are behaviors I found inappropriate, but I did not
agree with suspension. …

So I punished JJ at home and ignored my concerns. Then, two
months later, I was called to pick up my 3-year-old son, Joah. Joah
had hit a staff member on the arm. After that incident, they deemed
him a “danger to the staff.” Joah was suspended a total of five
times. In 2014, my children have received eight suspensions.

Powell, a black woman, notes the racial aspect of her sons’
punishments. Black children receive suspensions much more
frequently than white children, according to federal data. She
writes:

I believe most educators want to help all children. But many
aren’t aware of the biases and prejudices that they, like all of
us, harbor, and our current system offers very little diversity
training to preschool staff.

I’m sure the punishments in some schools are enforced in an
unfair, racially discriminatory way, and that this problem
disproportionately impacts black children. But Powell should note
that
all children, not just racial minorities, are being suspended
more and more frequently over trivial incidents. Schools
increasingly see children acting out as a criminal matter that
requires
suspension, expulsion, or even
police intervention.

If there’s any good news on this front, it’s that the absurdity
of many of these stories has prompted
something of a backlash. Some jurisdictions are even
considering easing up on the “zero tolerance” rules that bind
administrators to punish harshly for minor infractions.