On reforming suspensions: a teacher’s plea to California’s lawmakers
Dear lawmakers:
Jason Sanchez
Before you make any law that affects public education, please talk to teachers — teachers from rural and urban areas as well as poorer and wealthier areas. Students, parents and teachers represent the largest proportion of the population that is directly affected by laws impacting public education. Please spend most of your time talking with them to understand how they will be affected.
Then talk to school and district administrators, lobbyists and other policymakers.
In May, after 10 years of teaching, I resigned and left a career I was passionate about. Even though I love teaching, I had to leave. Lack of support and ever-increasing job duties took their toll and cost me my motivation to continue.
A major tipping point was when I had a particularly challenging group of students, including some who were regularly purposefully defiant. I usually handled my own classroom discipline by working with students and their families, but this time those efforts failed to address the situation. All year long I begged my school district for support. I repeatedly suspended one of the students from the classroom because he CONTINUE READING: On reforming suspensions: a teacher’s plea to California’s lawmakers | EdSource
