Researchers said they found those results surprising given the outspoken criticism voiced over discipline in focus group discussions and in individual interviews with community leaders prior to the poll and given the district's own figures on suspensions during the first eight weeks of the current school year. Darlington High School, with a 10-day enrollment of about 1,174 at the time, was second with 167 students suspended during the period, a rate of about 14.2 percent. Our point in raising this is that discipline does appear to be a problem. There's a red flag here. Knight said the traditional suspension has proven ineffective and said the district has begun to implement alternatives.
Parents hate it.
Students love it because they get out of school. Teachers probably like it. It is not effective in reducing misbehavior in the classroom. The key objective, she said, is to modify student behavior and keep children in school rather than kicking them out. More and more alternatives to suspension are gaining acceptance in the schools, Knight said.