‘Frightening’: Elementary School Physical Interaction Referrals Up 70% Last Two Years In Carroll County
Discipline referrals for physical interactions are up 70% in Carroll County’s public elementary schools in the last two years, but the students responsible for the altercations often remain in the classroom because of “restorative practices.”
Data shared by the school system on Monday the 18th during a student behavior work session shows 403 elementary school students have been issued 1,572 major discipline referrals for an “attack” or “fighting” involving “physical contact” through February, marking a 70% increase in two years time.
Board member Donna Sivigny called the increase “frightening.”
During the public comment portion of the March 13th Board of Education meeting, parents from Manchester Elementary School described their children’s experience in one uniquely troubled classroom.
“My daughter has been attacked a half dozen times by another peer in the classroom,” one mother of five explained. “She has had her hair ripped out, she’s been forcefully kicked in the chest, she’s had her hand stomped on, she has been punched in the back of the head, she’s been ripped back by the back of her hair, and her eyes scratched in attempt to have her eyes gouged out.”
A father to a student in the same class explained how his daughter’s potty training has been affected by the classroom.
“My child that attends that class, has now regressed in potty training, which, according to a psychologist, has been a traumatic response” he explained. “She’s urinated at school everyday for three weeks now.”
Despite the 70% increase in discipline referrals for physical interactions, suspensions for the same offense are up just 14%, there having been only 16 suspensions for the 1,572 physical interaction referrals this year.
School officials described the legal environment governing how they operate, identifying one specific provision, COMAR 13A.08.01.11(C), which prohibits the suspension of Pre-K to 2nd grade students, unless federal law requires it or a mental health professional determines the student at issue is an “imminent threat of serious harm to other students or staff that cannot be reduced or eliminated through interventions and supports.”
Ed O’Meally, the Board of Education’s retained counsel, explained the broader influence of “restorative practices” on education policy, where schools must focus on intervention over punishment and separation, a philosophy adopted broadly in Maryland throughout the last decade.
“We would have students suspended for a month, a semester, or the rest of the year,” he said, thinking back to how it was in 2014. “That doesn’t happen anymore in the State of Maryland.”