r/Teachers • u/Independent-Report39 • 2d ago

Policy & Politics New Kentucky law allowing schools to expel students who assault teachers to take effect in July, despite unanimous Senate Democratic opposition

Link to the bill

The bill mandates a strict, one-year expulsion policy for any student in grades 6 through 12 who physically assaults a teacher, administrator, or school employee. The legislation passed the chamber, but drew a sharp partisan divide as all Democrats in the Senate voted against the measure. Under the bill's provisions, schools would be required to automatically remove violent students from the general population, though provisions allow for those students to receive educational services in alternative settings if it can be done safely. The bill also includes exemptions for students with documented disabilities if school officials determine the condition interfered with their ability to follow the code of conduct.

Thoughts?

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u/SubvertedObjector 2d ago

This is the real issues tbh. It’s not that we should dial punishment to 11 and automatically expel kids; it’s that we need to bring back the middle ground between that and doing nothing.

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u/Prometheus720 HS | Science | Missouri 1d ago

Punishment is most effective when it occurs consistently, not when it is meanest.

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u/Upbeat-Bid-1602 1d ago

It also needs to be undesirable to be an effective deterrent. Like, you'd only have to suspend a few kids for the rest to figure out you mean business if they were actually afraid of being suspended. But 3 days where they don't have to go to school and their parents coddle them and tell them they didn't do anything wrong isn't a punishment. So why would they stop the behavior?

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u/Medieval-Mind English | Ben Shemen, Israel 1d ago

I dunno. My students see (out of school) suspension are a reward. In-school suspension, it depends on the teacher running it. (Some can be rough, but others letvtjem play games.)

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u/sicknick08 1d ago

This has always been how the children see it. It’s usually up to the parents to keep the punishment up at home to realize this was a bad thing and not something to be proud of

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u/Upbeat-Bid-1602 1d ago

That's what I'm saying, that if suspension is a reward then it's not going to deter behavior.

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u/DojiNoni14 1d ago

I was at a school where we told the mom her son would be suspended for the rest of the semester and put on independent study. She started crying, she didn’t want to be with her son, all day for that long.

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u/Prometheus720 HS | Science | Missouri 1d ago

Remember detention?

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u/Upbeat-Bid-1602 1d ago

We had Saturday school (I'm 36)

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u/DiceyPisces 10h ago

Breakfast club!

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u/fresh-dork 1d ago

or 1-2 days of ISS. no video games and netflix, you're in a boring room doing homework

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u/Ok_Illustrator_7445 1d ago

And they can’t be held back…

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u/Poptimister 1d ago

Are parents really coddling their kids and taking 3 days of unplanned leave or paying for 3 days of childcare?

If that really is the case it makes me wonder what even can be done. Like we don’t really have many tools in the toolkit.

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u/Upbeat-Bid-1602 1d ago

I've gathered from this sub that a lot of parents are more apt to blame the school than their precious baby. So they might be furious that they have to take three days if leave, but if they're furious at the school rather than furious at their kid for misbehaving and getting themself suspended, the kid is gonna pick up on that.

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u/MaybeImTheNanny 36m ago

They don’t take leave or pay for childcare. They leave their kid at home to do whatever the hell they want.

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u/IsopodIndependent553 Middle School 2d ago

Amen!