Program An Alternative Plan To Suspension Of Students

Lake City High School humanities teacher Mike Ruskovich doesn’t get home until almost 10 p.m. on Wednesdays. He’s busy supervising a unique disciplinary event called “Wednesday Night School.”

Administrators say it is a useful and effective alternative to suspension.

Some students claim it is ineffective, a waste of their already scarce time, and is doled out arbitrarily and inconsistently.

“About a decade ago, Steve Casey, (Coeur d’Alene High School principal), was looking for someone to do the job. I told him, OK, I’ll do it,” Ruskovich said.

The policy has been in place at Lake City High School since the school opened, and every Wednesday night, an average of six to eight students go to Night School, from 6 to 9 p.m. with a 5-minute bathroom break.

Dale Roberts, assistant principal in charge of discipline, said “It’s a disciplinary action. The number one thing would be to try to provide an opportunity for it to be worthwhile to kids, so that they can use the time.”

Ruskovich agreed. “It really isn’t designed to be an educational thing. The educational part was just a side effect.”

There are a number of ways students can be assigned Night School. Ruskovich said the most common include truancy, profanity in class, leaving class without permission and insubordination.

The session is supposed to be “a quiet time, a study atmosphere … a chance to catch up on any late work, and to study,” said Ruskovich. In order for that to happen, certain rules are enforced.

First, students have to be productive. “They can read, write, draw, or do something else productive.”

And, to be sure you “do your whole time,” Ruskovich locks the door. “If they’re late, I hand them their books, and they come back the next week.”

The session is “not supposed to be a fun, party time. No food or drink, no headphones, no watching TV, no visiting.”

Some students have a problem with the policy.

“I think that having to go to school as a punishment for not being in school is ridiculous,” said senior Stacia Secreriat, who has attended Night School. “It reinforces kids’ hate for school by having to sit and not do anything for three hours.”

Roberts explained that Night School is an effective punishment “because it is a case where students don’t like it.”

Plus, he said, it is “an effective alternative to suspension,” because it keeps the student in class and allows them to stay in school.

“I have a problem with suspending kids for skipping school,” Ruskovich said. “For a kid that isn’t showing up to school, it is not a big punishment to send him home for a few days. He is getting what he wants.”

Senior Jessica Morrison still disagrees with the policy. “I think it’s a ludicrous procedure, primarily because, according to the mission statement of District 271, it’s supposed to be an environment of mutual trust and understanding,’ which, one, isn’t even remotely adhered to when you give kids a disciplinary measure for being in the hallway, using the bathroom or drinking fountain without a pass, and secondly, because so much of learning is based on interaction and discussion, and they place you in an environment where that is entirely stifled.”

Ruskovich said it is mostly underclassmen he sees every Wednesday, which creates another problem.

Some parents, who have to drive their kids to Night School, find the punishment a hassle.

“I’ve had angry parents who come to the door,” Ruskovich said. “My guess is if I were the parent, I wouldn’t like it either, having to take time to come out to the high school, and then coming back to pick them up.”

Some students say the rule isn’t enforced fairly or consistently. “I think it’s just an excuse for the administration to punish the kids that they think are trouble-makers,” Morrison said.

Secreriat agreed. “There is definitely a type,” she explained. “There have been numerous times when I’ve walked past administrators in the hall without a pass, and not a word (was said), because I’m not the type of kid they’re after.

But despite student criticism and complaints of some parents, the punishment does not appear likely to change any time soon.

“It is not an option that we would want to lose,” said Lake City assistant principal Roberts.

We’re interested in what you think about this issue. If you have access to the Internet, click on http://intheschools.spokane.net and leave your comments on the message board for the “In the Schools” Web site. On that site, you will find current and past articles written by our student correspondents from the high schools in Kootenai County. We will select some comments from the message boards for future publication in Handle Extra.