DURHAM -- The number of students suspended from Durham's public schools hit a seven-year low, with six per cent of the student population, or 4,003 students, suspended last year.
The majority of the students were suspended once for a total of 6,008 suspensions. This figure is significantly lower than recent years, when the suspension rate has hovered between 8.37 and 9.63 per cent, which was the 2006-2007 rate. During that year there were 10,848 suspensions handed out to 7,078 students.
The decrease can be attributed to changes in the Province's Safe Schools Act, which was introduced in 2000, said Joe Hircock, the Durham District School Board's superintendent in charge of safety and security. The act took a tough approach and required that suspensions be handed out for a long list of actions. However, recent revisions to the act, which were implemented in 2008, gave schools more flexibility in trying alternative approaches to suspensions and expulsions, which are also known as exclusions.
"Schools were asked to investigate different ways of dealing with behaviour," said Mr. Hircock.
This could include in-school suspensions, time-out rooms and restorative practice, which is based on First Nations traditions and aims not to punish students, but to repair the harm done.
"Schools, staff, teachers, support staff, all of our people ... are looking at alternatives to exclusion and we feel that we're starting to make an impact," said Mr. Hircock.
He also brought figures to the board's standing committee meeting on Monday showing 83 per cent of students said they strongly agree or agree that they feel safe when they're at school and 85 per cent say they feel safe on their way to school.
In addition to hearing the statistics on suspensions, the committee heard a presentation on restorative practice at Monday's meeting.
Mel Barkwill, the board's safe schools officer, said the concept is catching on around the world.
In Durham's schools, the practice was introduced just over a year ago and Mr. Hircock said educators have embraced it. There's a high demand for training sessions on the technique.
Bruce Schenk, director of the International Institute for Restorative Practices in Canada, is advising Durham's public school board.
"I learned very early on that someone doesn't change until they understand the impact of their actions on other people," said Mr. Schenk, adding that kids learn how to fix things when they start dealing with things restoratively.
It also improves communication in the school overall.
Mr. Schenk, who worked with the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board to bring the practice to all of that board's schools, said kids were more likely to speak up about problems after restorative practice was introduced.
"They realize it's not about getting into trouble, it's about trying to fix things," he said.
Scugog Trustee Joyce Kelly, who along with student trustee Joselyn DeJong recently observed the restorative process, said she found the process to be both fair and firm.
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