ITEM FILE PHOTO
Superintendent Dr. Catherine Latham
By LEAH DEARBORN
LYNN — City schools are taking a closer look at how discipline is doled out.
At Thursday night’s school committee meeting, several members raised concerns about how the district’s suspension policy is applied.
Committee member Maria Carrasco asked whether Superintendent Dr. Catherine Latham could provide more information regarding the discipline code.
Carrasco specifically wanted to know more about suspension procedures related to the youngest students and those with behavioral problems. She also expressed a fear that the same students who are suspended regularly in grammar school are more likely to drop out in later grades.
Deputy Superintendent Dr. Patrick Tutwiler said that suspension rates have been dropping across city schools and cited statistics submitted to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
According to Tutwiler, Lynn English High School had a 30 percent suspension rate three years ago; it is now 18 percent. Lynn Tech and Classical High School also both saw drops in suspension rates over the same period.
Tutwiler said he believes those drops have a lot to do with schools embracing the spirit of a recently passed law that relegates suspension to a last resort as a disciplinary measure.
“In my humble opinion, we’re headed in the right direction,” said Tutwiler.
Committee member Jared Nicholson agreed that the downward trend in suspensions points to movement in the right direction, but questioned why there was disparity in the numbers across schools if suspension policies were being implemented consistently.
Another issue discussed during the meeting was the lack of space for in-school suspension programs at some of the facilities, notably at English High School.
Carrasco and member John Ford Jr. both said students see out-of-school suspensions as a vacation and are less prone to take the punishment seriously.
“Kids shouldn’t be punished because we don’t have the space. We need to find it for those kids,” said committee Vice-Chair Patricia Capano.
Latham said she would work with school principals to carve out some space. She also said she would come up with a report on minority suspension data for the next meeting.