Suspension is a word that most AHS students never have to hear. For those that do, however, this usually means a few days or more off of school at home missing class work and other vital school information. Starting the second semester, going home will no longer be an option for those students suspended; instead, they will be making their way to school like everyone else, but will be spending it in the new in-school suspension program.
“It’s a different form of intervention and discipline,” assistant principal Aaron Schneider said. “We’ve had the idea and have wanted to do it for a while now. We’re starting the program now because Principal Randazzo was able to get a little more staffing.”
According to Schneider, during a student’s suspension, they will have to report to a designated in-school suspension location and remain there for the day. Teachers provide students with work that they will work on at their location throughout the day. The general idea of the program is to keep suspended students working and caught up in class instead of not doing work at home and falling behind.
“I think [in-school suspension] would be better because out of school suspension
you can go ahead and do anything you want and it wouldn’t really be like it’s a
punishment, it’d be more like you’re just getting out of school,” freshman Camile Soruco said.
Principal Vincent Randazzo agrees that this is a good way to handle school discipline issues instead of having students go home to wait out their punishment.
“We want to keep students on track with schoolwork,” Randazzo said.
The program will be run in a trailer located in the back of the school. While there, in coordination with suspended students’ teachers, their regular assignments will be sent for them to work on them throughout the regular school day.
“Nothing significant happened for [the program] to be put into place now,” Assistant Principal Jamie Carayiannis said. “We’re always looking for ways to support kids in endeavors here at school. We want to keep them engaged.”
