By Danielle Tobb ’17

As a result of efforts to keep students in school, the number of out-of-school suspensions at Sherwood has remained at an all-time low over the past two years. There were six suspensions during the first quarter of this school year. During the first quarter of 2014-2015 school year, there were just three suspensions.

The school, instead, has relied on In-School Interventions (ISI) and other measures such as peer mediation and community service. As suspensions decline, the number of students placed in ISI has greatly increased, and 39 students were given ISI during the second quarter of this school year, according to data pulled by Assistant Principal Sandi Williams.

Starting as early as February of 2012, the Maryland State Board of Education passed a new initiative to cut the number of students suspended from school because of the belief that those students were missing too much class time. The report that the board drafted concluded that there was little to no evidence that removing students from school for misdemeanors improved student behavior or the school’s safety.

After the Maryland State Board of Education finalized new regulations on suspensions in 2014, MCPS followed suit by adjusting its own policies. A new code of conduct includes a 10-page matrix of different wrongdoings and detailed levels of punishment for each. These new MCPS guidelines led to an increase in ISI at Sherwood to 15 in 2014 from four the previous year. This comes a year after suspensions at Sherwood in 2013 were at an all-time high of 49, according to Williams.

The In-School Interventions typically take place in a room located in the main office. Posted on the wall includes a set of rules that students in the room must follow. These guidelines include securing cell phones, following directions of staff members, and

completing all assignments given to them. Williams explained that during ISI, a student is provided with a reflection sheet in which the student answers questions to reflect on his or her behavior, what caused that behavior and the appropriate response in the future.

According to Principal Bill Gregory, there are few repeat offenders in ISI for behavioral issues due to its monotonous nature, and Gregory believes that ISI therefore deters students to a great extent from misbehaving again.

Social studies teacher Todd Rubinstein has had multiple students placed in ISI on more than one occasion. “For those students, the lesson is clearly not being received. These students are missing a significant amount of instruction in all of their courses.”

Rubinstein said that while the boredom of ISI has the potential to be worse than an out-of-school suspension, he has seen students in the ISI room sleeping and playing on their cellphones.

At Sherwood specifically, para-educators are in charge of taking shifts to look over the students in ISI. One para-educator noted that the students in the program oftentimes stare into space. Some teachers do not provide them with any homework to do while in the program.

The main goal of the ISI program is to increase classroom instruction for students who would otherwise be losing substantial learning time if suspended. ISI is also intended to address the fact that studies and reports consistently have found that black and hispanic students are disproportionately suspended out-of-school. However, minority students continue to make up the greatest share of students placed in ISI at Sherwood. Unlike out-of-school suspensions, the racial and gender demographics of students in ISI are not reported to MCPS or the state of Maryland.

Gregory explained that students sleeping and playing on their cell phones during ISI was a problem that needed to be resolved. The role of the para-educator is to help students with their schoolwork, and Gregory added that the para-educator should contact an administrator if a student in ISI resists or refuses to complete school work.

Gregory says that there is an important distinction between the term “ISI,” which is “to make sure students get their work done,” and “ISS,” which is a punishment for students to “just sit there.” Sherwood does not have ISS, according to Gregory. On the rare occasion when a student is given an out-of-school suspension, it often results from a more serious behavior and involves the police.

One male junior recently was put in ISI for two days after bringing a knife to school. He said that he intended no harm and that he simply forgot that it was in his backpack. The incident led to his first time placed in ISI. His teachers gave him homework to do while in the program, but not enough to keep him occupied for an entire school day. When he ran out of homework, he proceeded to sleep for the rest of the day. He believed that it did not teach him a lesson and felt that the ISI room was akin to a jail cell.