Schools attempt to stop students from deliberately missing classes by presenting them with detention. Suspension is a flawed system that causes students who suffer from it to feel resentment towards their teachers. Suspensions do not only fail to make them less likely to miss class, but fails to teach them the importance of being in class by filling them with anger and boredom. Some suspensions were given for trivial matters; a student was suspended for wearing a t-shirt that supported his brother in the military. Suspensions are also biased based on the teachers who follow no set guidelines, which can lead to racism and favoritism. This can cause bullying and disrupt the unity of the classroom. Teachers should not be able to punish without following an enforced system and restrict the life and plans of students.

Many suspensions that are issued are about matters that the victimized student does not understand. For instance, violence, personal space and terrorism are things some younger students don’t quite understand. An Oregon high school student was suspended from school because he wore a shirt that had a gun on it in honor of his brother, who was in the military. The adolescent refused to remove his shirt and was punished with a suspension (“8th Grader Suspended for T-Shirt with Soldier Memorial”).  A kindergartner in Virginia was suspended for crying because it disrupted the learning environment ("Crying, Foul: Kindergartener Gets Suspended for Tearing up”). Another example of an unnecessary suspension would be when a student in Virginia opened a door for a teacher who had their hands full and let her inside of the school. The suspension was issued because the teacher needed to be “vetted by a CCTV camera” ("Student Suspended for Politely Holding Door Open."). All of the students involved in these situations were puzzled as to why they were punished for doing what only seemed right.

Students who are given suspensions are often isolated by their peers because they’re categorized as “trouble students”. Major punishments like this tend to make students develop anxiety and the students end up isolated from other students, and in some cases even growing afraid of the school and becoming isolated completely. Suspensions can ruin friendships, as well as slow down a student's progress in class. This method of punishment not only fails to teach the student a lesson about "proper" behavior, but instead causes the students to lose out on the important lessons the school is meant to provide. In most situations, the student is excited to be out of school, clueless of what it means on their record. When students are suspended, they miss classes in school which can pull the students behind more than the school intends to. These punishments end up hurting the student’s grades more than having them learn from their mistakes. How is the student supposed to improve their grades and behavior while being isolated and missing those lessons? Suspensions are not helping the student or the school.

Teachers of schools are free to give any student a suspension, and in many cases, students are suspended due to biased decision-making. African American students have the highest rate of getting suspended in schools across the United States. The student group who is assigned the least amount of suspensions are the Caucasian students. Favoritism also makes the suspension system faulty. A student’s future can be tainted just because of a teacher who’s been having a bad day. For instance, a suspension was given out to a  nine-year old who called a teacher cute. This incident was considered sexual harassment.  Teachers shouldn’t have the right to ruin student records because of a minor dilemma that has no reason to receive major punishment-- or a punishment at all.

Instead of suspensions, schools should have more innovative ideas to teach students a lesson, but only if they deserve the punishment. For example, instead of suspending a student who has skipped class, schools should require students take extra classes after school, or do a certain number of hours of community service. This will prevent students from skipping more classes for sure. As for students who don’t abide by the dress code, they shouldn’t be issued a suspension, but given a verbal warning and a request to change attires. Wearing the wrong clothes to school should NOT affect a student’s future career, it’s just foolish.

Ultimately, a student’s record will hold all the instances where the student has been assigned a suspension, even if the situation was not suspension-worthy. Ruining the future of these scholars is not in the school’s best intention. Many schools are funded by student attendance. These schools don’t receive the money for each day a student is absent or suspended from school (“The School Suspension Rate Dilemma”). This money can accumulate to thousands of dollars over a couple years. Suspensions benefit neither the school nor the students, and this is why it is a flawed system that needs to be replaced with a better punishment model that allows for mutual benefit to both students and the school.

Works Cited
"Boy, 9, Suspended from School for Sexual Harassment After Calling Teacher 'Cute'" Fox News. FOX News Network, 04 Dec. 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2015. .
"Brain Dead." Suspension Stories. Project NIA and Rogers Park Young Women's Action Team (YWAT), n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. .
Doctorow, Cory. "Student Suspended for Politely Holding Door Open."Boing Boing. N.p., 01 Mar. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. .
Faryon, Joanne. "Chronically Absent Students Cost County Schools Millions." KPBS Public Media. KPBS News, 27 June 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2015. .
Freeman, Andrew. "The School Suspension Rate Dilemma." TakePart. Participant Media, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. .
Hopkins, AWR. "8th Grader Suspended for T-Shirt with Soldier Memorial."Breitbart News. N.p., 12 Oct. 2015. Web. 21 Oct. 2015. .
McGinn, David. "Crying, Foul: Kindergartener Gets Suspended for Tearing up." The Globe and Mail. N.p., 10 Sept. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. .