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Moore, Kimberly

College of Education and Social Services

2004

Ed. D.

Due to violent acts in school nationwide, safety concerns are a bigger issue in schools today than scholarship because students need to be in school and safe before they can learn (Fox & Levin, 2001; Noguera, 1995). Parents and school officials are scrambling to figure out what is causing this violence, how to prevent it, and how to respond after it has happened. Schools are responding to violence with physical interventions, metal detectors, and new policies which include wide-spread use of suspensions and expulsions. The purpose of this study is to examine whether suspension is an effective deterrent to violent behavior at the junior and senior high school level. The study examines the relationship between in-school suspension (ISS) and out-of-school suspension (OSS) and recidivism rates for different categories of offenses. This study further analyzes the relationships between the subgroups (gender, special education classification, and free and reduced lunch classification), recidivism, frequency, and type of suspension that a student receives.
The major question posed in this study was what is the effect of suspension for violent offenders. The recidivism rates showed that 16.4% of students suspended for a violent offense are repeat offenders. It was determined that there was no statistical difference in the effect of ISS versus OSS on recidivism rates. The results may be different with a larger study. Students were predominately male (88.5%), non-free and reduced lunch (67.2%), and non-special education (63.9%). Free and reduced lunch students were over represented in the suspensions at 32.8%, since the school average is 15.6%. Special education students are also over represented since they make up 36.1 % of suspensions for violent offense and 15.1% of the student body.