JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Amir Whitaker, left, civil rights attorney for the ACLU of Southern California; Darcia Forester, deputy public defender with the state Public Defenders Office; and Heidi Armstrong, assistant superintendent of the Office of Student Support Services at the DOE, spoke June 6 during a ACLU of Hawaii panel as Rae Shih moderated. They discussed the current landscape of the state’s public schools.
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Having worked as a schoolteacher in New York City and Long lsland with a master’s degree in elementary education, and then as a nationally certified school psychologist for 40 years in New Jersey and then in Honolulu, I concur with the Star-Advertiser and Lee Cataluna’s column (“Schools should curb suspension,” Star-Advertiser, Our View, June 19; “Old schools weeded out bad behavior,” Lee Cataluna, July 5).
The following are my recommendations:
>> lf a student is deemed needing school suspension, a complete psychological and educational evaluation should be mandated by school personnel and then the recommendations should be followed.
>> Out-of-school suspensions should be abolished, as the student is then further alienated from educational supervision and care.
>> Every public school in Hawaii should have an in-school suspension room where the student is supervised and educated for the specified time.
>> All students are our responsibility as educators and concerned citizens. Therefore, positive educational procedures should be followed, eliminating rejection of needy students.
Joanne Shapiro
Makiki
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