Public school suspension rates are down in London, but disruptive behaviour is way up, educators say

The Thames Valley District School Board doesn't suspend students as often as it used to before the pandemic, but educators say that doesn't mean violence and disruptive behaviour have decreased. 

In fact, they say the opposite is true.

CBC News spoke to the unions representing elementary and secondary school teachers, as well as support staff and educational assistants following the release of a report this week that shows suspension rates have dropped overall at the school board, most significantly at the elementary school level, in Grades 4-8.

The board reports the numbers as a percentage rate based on enrolment. In 2022-2023, the most recent school year for which data is available, when there were approximately 82,000 students, the school board suspended five per cent of students. That was down from a pre-pandemic high of seven per cent in the 2018-2019 school year, at a time when there were fewer students enrolled. 

The provincial suspension rate in both 2018-2019 and in 2022-2023 was four per cent.  

Despite those numbers, educators in London are reporting feeling unsafe in schools as they deal with kids and teens who have missed vital developmental milestones and have trouble regulating their emotions and behaviours. 

"It's not that the violence isn't there, it's not that the behaviours aren't there. It just means there's a policy or practice that we're no longer suspending students," said Rebecca Avey, president of CUPE Local 7575, which represents educational assistants with the public school board. 

"The whole problem is, we're just triaging and just surviving. We don't have the time to stop and think. It's hard when you're in the middle of a dumpster fire to reflect on what might work."  

In 2019, then-director of education Mark Fisher vowed to reduce the school board's suspension rates, which were higher than the provincial average especially at the elementary level. In 2018-2019, about 2.5 per cent of kids were suspended, but in Thames Valley 7.3 per cent of kids were suspended.

In 2022-2023, the provincial number is unchanged but the Thames Valley number has dipped to four per cent. 

Fisher introduced progressive discipline, and asked teachers and principals to try new ways of intervening in situations before suspending students.

Distressing behaviour

But student behaviour is a growing concern, said John Bernans, the president of the union that represents high school teachers. "How are we correcting the behaviour, if we're not suspending? I think teachers are frustrated with the lack of effective tools." 

Elementary suspension rates have gone down significantly. Secondary school suspension rates have gone down negligibly, the numbers show: 

It's up to principals whether a student gets suspended, said Dennis Wright, the school board's superintendent of safe schools, who presented the suspension data to trustees on Tuesday. 

But because of Fisher's push to reduce suspensions, some principals have felt they need to get a superintendent's approval before suspending a student, the union heads say.  

"There was a certain approach that the previous administration had that related to issues of student conduct and consequences, and there's since been a change in attitude and a recognition that schools are in rough shape," said Craig Smith, president of the union that represents elementary teachers. 

Former director of education Bill Tucker has taken over the helm of the board, and said Tuesday that principals don't need anyone's permission to suspend.  

"We need to let the principals be the principals of their schools," he said. "I can tell you that the principals I talk to are seeing behaviours that they've never seen before in elementary and secondary schools. Kids in kindergarten are displaying antisocial behaviours because they missed key learning pieces because of COVID." 

There are high levels of violence and "disregulated behaviour" in schools, Smith said.

"We have codes of conduct and expectations about how students are supposed to behave and we need to, as part of the learning process, offer consequences for behaviours. We've let the pendulum shift to doing less and now I think it's swinging back." 

There will also be a greater emphasis on "re-entry meetings," where the principal meets with a suspended student and parent or guardian to discuss the infraction, Smith said. Those have fallen by the wayside in recent years, he said. 

Do you have a story about violence in a London school? Share it with us by sending an email to kate.dubinski@cbc.ca