Exclusionary School Discipline

Behavior is communication.

—Jennifer Rainville, Education Policy Attorney at SC Appleseed

About a decade ago, I worked for a few months as a certified long-term substitute teacher at what was then called the Alternative Academy for Success.

The school was located in a large, demographically-diverse district. Classrooms for high school students were housed in an old elementary school building with what appeared to be ‘90s-era elementary school murals still on the walls. Old insulation drooped from the ceilings. A steel prison-style door with a wire mesh window greeted staff and students at the entrance; we had to hold our IDs up to a camera to be buzzed in.

Alternative academies, sometimes called “success centers” or “success academies,” are one common institutional response to real and perceived student behavior problems, with the general feeling being that housing students who have been expelled from their home schools together on an alternative campus is a way to address serious discipline problems. Sometimes these are pitched as places where students can get special assistance with emotional issues, and in theory that sounds pretty good.

In practice, many of the students at the Academy for Success told me they had committed single nonviolent offenses, such as drug possession on campus. Others appeared to have significant undiagnosed emotional problems. Outbursts over seemingly minor issues during class were common. Fights always seemed to be on the verge of breaking out.

I am not aware of any staff who were trained specifically in dealing with the complex psychological and social issues that drove the behavior of many of the students. While the administrative staff of the school was extremely small, many disciplinary issues were handled directly by police officers (SROs) without training for working in an academic setting or with students with emotional or cognitive disabilities.

And, in a state like South Carolina, in which a large percentage of our schools are still heavily racially segregated, it bears pointing out that while the district was racially diverse, the Academy’s student population appeared to be disproportionately African American, a trend that, as we’ll see below, tracks with research on school discipline. In the large classes I taught, most students were Black; according to state enrollment data, more the majority of students in the district were White, and there were more than twice as many White students as Black students. (Research suggests that school districts generally transfer minority students to alternative schools at a greater rate than their peers.)

South Carolina continues to struggle with how to serve all students, including those with behavior problems which are often caused or exacerbated by undiagnosed or unserved emotional or cognitive issues.

The former parking lot of one “success academy,” the Chapin Alternative Academy for Success. The school has moved to another campus. Source: Google Street View.

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