In the aftermath of any of the incidents, Columbine or otherwise, did you really think, "Gosh, if only the school had punished those kids more, this wouldn't have happened!"?

I come from a public school teaching family. Each of my parents has 30+ years of on-campus experience in the LAUSD, including many years in schools in what are considered dangerous neighborhoods. At risk of speaking for them, but knowing them fairly well, I'd be shocked if their answer to my posed hypothetical of this drawing being a first "offense" were any different than mine. They went to work each day with the idea in mind to teach and help their students, not to punish them. Punishment was a useful tool when necessary, but it was never a first line action.

Maybe if they had been, they would be changed people now and not dead murderers.

Seriously? You think punishment is the answer?

I guess I don't have anything more to say to that. I couldn't disagree more. I saw way too many of my classmates go into self-destructive spirals because all the school ever did to "address" their obvious social issues was punish them and punish. And when that didn't work, they punished them more. Until they just gave up and kicked them out of school. They made no effort to actually help these kids, they just suspended them over and over. It was atrocious.

Accountability for one's actions. I'm quite serious.

Indeed... what I think they're trying to say, though, is that just "dealing"-- booting a kid, without counseling or communication-- is not a sufficient way to deal with a problem.

(That said, in this situation we don't actually know if they didn't communicate or counsel, do we?)

As a completely hypothetical, though, if the child was suspended without attempt to discuss the situation openly and honestly, I would say that is not "dealing" at all, but rather, pushing a problem out of site without dealing with it.

How will they learn accountability, though, if you aren't talking to them about what they did, or why they did it, or how it can be misconstrued (or correctly interpreted.) I highly doubt that Columbine could have been prevented if they just suspended the kids. If they'd recognized their cries for help and responded with counsel and communication, that's one thing. Suspension? Really?

Yep. I think this kid knows how serious the situation is as do his parents. If there are any questions about this kid in the future at least the parents and teachers will notice.

And, yes, we don't know the whole story. I haven't seen any updates on it...

Out of curiosity, I'd like to know what the other parents of kids in his class think. If I was one of them, I would be okay with the school's decision. AND I would sit my own kid down and talk to them about the incident.

See, that's just it. Suspension without reason isn't addressing anything, it's copping out and deferring to "the future". If it IS something more than just doodling, NOW is the time to figure that out, not the time to smack him and hope that fixes it.

But isn't that what suspension is? It's the school saying, 'Parents, fix this'? They are putting it in his parents' court.