Nearly 250 Young Students In Paterson, NJ Suspended Last Year
PATERSON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Young students in New Jersey's third-largest city are being suspended at an alarming rate.
Last year, nearly 250 students in second grade or younger were suspended from school.
"My first reaction was 'this is so outrageous,'" Rosie Grant with the Paterson Education Fund told CBS2's Jessica Moore.
"When I saw the numbers for kindergarten, I thought 'you have got to be kidding me,'" Linda Reid of the Parent Education Organizing Council said.
Last year, 238 kindergarten, first and second graders were sent on out-of-school suspensions. Contrast that with only 129 high school students.
The school district said the reason is simple: It doesn't have the staff to oversee in-school suspensions in elementary schools.
"They should have more social workers in school, more guidance counselors," Reid said.
She said the school should be seeking more money from the governor who "has short-changed Paterson."
In 2014, the district stopped suspending students for things like cursing, pushing and non-cooperation. But it was too late for Reid's granddaughter who was suspended three times in kindergarten.
"The third time she was suspended, she did something and she said 'I know now if I don't want to go to school, I can do something bad in school and get to stay home.' So she learned how to manipulate the system," Reid said.
Students can still be suspended for disorderly conduct, which includes not staying near the desks and roaming around the classroom.
"In this generation, parents are not raising their kids right. So I guess kids see what their parents are doing, and they're bringing it on to the school," a Paterson parent, Zuhey Milete, said.
People on both sides of the argument agree the district needs more money and parents need to pay more attention to their children's education.
The district said it is currently revising the student code of conduct in hopes of keeping more kids in school.
