That's 20 percent of their time taken away from working with students. Private schools have it better. They can drop troublesome students.
Suspension is the most public schools can do.
Washington Intermediate School, in a middle-class district of Honolulu, is in the second year of a new program to promote better discipline. Teachers like it. They would like to see it back next September for a third year, says Principal Marsha Allegre, even though it means one less teacher in a classroom. Heavy attention is paid to the fact that students at these grade levels are still very dependent but trying very hard to be independent. They seldom can go for more than two seconds without moving some body part.