DURHAM -- Right at 2:30 p.m., Ricky Green heads over to the bus stop in his neighborhood to catch up on the day's drama and make weekend plans with his closest friends from Hillside High School.
The bus stop conversations about what teachers said, who got into trouble and who's hooking up with whom, may be the most important part of the 17-year-old's otherwise empty day. He's on his third suspension this year from school, this time for the rest of the year after being accused of threatening a teacher.
Ricky is among the 10 percent of North Carolina public school students booted out of class for some period each year, either for serious offenses, such as fighting and making threats, or for infractions such as ignoring the dress code.
Only three other states suspend a higher percentage of their students each year, according to the National Center of Education Statistics. Suspensions are particularly high in the Triangle. Wake County, which educates 9 percent of the state's public school students, accounts for 20 percent of all long-term suspensions. In the 2007-2008 school year, the latest for which statewide statistics are available, Wake handled more than 1,100 long-term suspensions.
"Those are pretty startling numbers, and I think it serves as a wake-up call," says Keith Sutton, appointed to the Wake school board in August.
Black males and special education students are disproportionately represented among the suspended.
The high suspension rate worries advocates for children. Suspended students are three times as likely to drop out, according to Action for Children North Carolina, an advocacy group that pushes school districts to find alternatives to banishment from school for improving student behavior.
Dropouts, particularly African-American males, have great difficulty finding jobs, and according to a new study from Northeastern University in Boston, face higher risks of ending up in jail. The study found that one in four young black male dropouts are incarcerated or institutionalized on an average day.
Parents' rights
The legislature last summer required school districts to give parents detailed, written information about coming suspensions, access to students' records, and more information about their rights to appeals. The Durham district recently revised its policies to comply with the law and to address community concerns about too many suspensions.
School board members know suspensions are common. Most members of the seven-member Durham board have had children or grandchildren in some form of short-term suspension. The children of two school board members were suspended for leaving a field trip with a chaperone without permission.
"We are really trying to reduce suspensions when possible and looking at alternatives to hold students accountable," says Nathan Curry, Durham's due process officer who presides over suspension hearings. "But we don't believe in sacrificing safe schools just to have fewer suspensions."
But state Rep. Deborah Ross, a Raleigh Democrat who co-sponsored the notification bill, notes that students can be suspended for infractions that are not threatening, such as skipping school or not following the dress code.
"The punishment for misbehaving in school should be more school," says Ross, who hopes the new law will encourage more parents to exercise their due process rights. "But sometimes it's easier to take a child out of a classroom rather than deal with the conduct in a more constructive way."
Advocates for children who have raised concerns about high suspension rates agree, adding that teachers and schools need better resources for classroom management.
"Kids are getting what they want. If they act out, they get thrown out of school. Some of these kids don't want to be in school, but do we want these kids on the street?" says Barb Bradley, president of Action for Children North Carolina. "In my day, rolling your eyes or using filthy language were not offenses for which you were suspended."
'I don't really care'
Ricky Green appears indifferent about missing class.
"To be honest, I don't really care about being back in class," says Ricky, a senior who was a member of the Hillside chess club and a wrestler before his long-term suspension. "When I'm home, I get to sleep, eat, watch TV, do whatever."
Ricky's mother, Karen Alexander, 45, won't give in to that attitude. The single mother has been fighting Durham schools for years to keep her son in class. "If I didn't have to work, I would've pulled him out sooner to home-school. If I had the money, I would've put him in a private school," she said. "But I have to work for a living. We have to eat. So I have to leave him at home every day. I can't parent-lock everything anymore."
Alexander, who works in the student accounts office at N.C. Central University, attends parent-teacher meetings, observes her son's behavior during class visits, and tries to select teachers each semester who she thinks know how best to educate Ricky.
She tells teachers about her son's "tics": He can't sit still. He taps his pencil. He doesn't like it when people get in his "personal space."
Alexander says she's been powerless against the suspension slips that come home with her son seemingly every few weeks for skipping class, talking back to teachers and tardiness. In three and a half years, Ricky has missed more than 150 days of school because of suspensions.
Principals' discretion
In Durham and many other districts, short-term suspensions - 10 days or less - are at the discretion of the principal and can't be formally appealed.
"We encourage principals and administration to look at the circumstances and to weigh balancing the safe and orderly environment of the school with the context of what occurred, and allow judgment there," says Debbie Pittman, assistant superintendent for support services.
When Ricky's short-term suspensions were at their most frequent his freshman year, Alexander eventually stopped signing notification forms as an act of protest.
Parents are often kept in the dark about their rights, say lawyers who represent thousands of suspended students each year in the Triangle.
"I give huge kudos to Durham for looking at this seriously, making changes, and using their own experience to apply to the rest of the school system," says Mark Trustin, a suspensions lawyer and community advocate who represented Ricky in his long-term suspension hearing three weeks ago.
But there are still some flaws, lawyers say.
Long-term suspension hearings, which start at the school level, are made up of a panel of three teachers. They are tasked to evaluate punishment set forth by their employer, the principal. "As a teacher, do you really have any choice but to agree with your boss?" asks Jason Langberg, a lawyer with the nonprofit Advocates for Children's Services.
One teacher on the panel can be selected by the student. The teacher Ricky wanted to sit on his panel was sick and out on the day his hearing was re-scheduled, according to Alexander. The school canceled the first hearing date for an unknown reason.
Ricky's latest trouble occurred when a teacher chastised him for being in a hallway. He says his language was inappropriate but not threatening. Moreover, he argues that the situation escalated because he found the teacher's language and demeanor threatening to him.
Alexander says the biggest challenge in her son's case was not being able to mention his newly diagnosed oppositional defiant disorder and ADHD, Alexander says. Children with special education needs are legally entitled to an evaluation of their alleged offense in light of their diagnoses. If a person's behavior might be a manifestation of his or her disability, the punishments could change.
Because Ricky's diagnosis was so recent and there hadn't been documented indications of possible emotional disability before the incident, the new information could not legally be considered in the hearing.
Two days after the hearing, the family received notice that Ricky was suspended for the rest of the year. He was given the option to attend an alternative school in the district, but Alexander did not want him to go there because she thought the education was inferior and the environment dangerous.
"This is not a bad kid. He beats to his own drummer. He's outspoken, and he's got a few bad habits, but if you're in tune to that, he can excel in your class," she says.
Ricky agrees.
"My favorite classes are ones where it's hands-on and interactive," he says. "I getvery easily distracted otherwise."
But then, what of the fights? Ricky swears he's not in a gang. All of his fistfight-related suspensions took place his freshman year at Hillside. "You gotta defend yourself, and then they'll [the gangs] leave you alone," he says.
Ricky was too angry to talk after learning of his long-term suspension.
His parents separated when he was in the eighth grade, and Alexander acknowledged the situation was difficult. "He has a problem with male authority figures that remind him of his father," she says.
Ask Ricky about his dad, and his body tenses up. He doesn't want to talk about him, he says, adding that his dad has nothing to do with what's going on with him.
Alexander says she won't surrender her child to life without an education. She insists he will get a GED and enroll in Durham Tech this spring.
