Tailored discipline

The Wake County schools have been hands-down North Carolina champs when it comes to disciplinary suspensions that keep students out of school for weeks or even months at a stretch. That is not a badge to be worn with pride. Although misbehavior by students can be a serious matter, there's no reason to think that Wake has had a far worse problem with student misconduct than any other school system in the state. Yet that's what its disciplinary regime has suggested.

Now the school board has moved to put Wake more in line with common-sense policies used elsewhere. This does not represent "going soft" on students who disobey or disrupt. It simply recognizes that ultra-long-term suspensions can be counterproductive, cutting a student off from the kind of structure that helps keep him or her from giving up on school altogether.

And when students give up, what they have in store too often is a hurtful blend of joblessness, crime and premature parenthood.

School board members have been butting heads over diversity, but they came together to approve a change in the definition of long-term suspension. Students whose misdeeds warrant more than 10 days out of school won't automatically be tossed for the rest of the year, as happened to 833 students last year. Instead, principals will be better able to tailor a suspension to fit the offense.

There are some cases in which a student - one who assaults a teacher, say - deserves no slack. But "zero tolerance" is a blunt instrument when applied to young people who are prone to making mistakes. It is smart for the school board to back away from a policy that has been too inflexible and too harsh.