New approach for students in trouble -- fewer suspensions

DeKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A local school district is one of the first in the area to try a new approach to handling students who get in trouble.

It includes fewer suspensions, with the goal of lowering the dropout rate and showing students they can succeed.

Jaden Wooden, a junior at McNair High School in DeKalb County, said it feels great to walk down the hallway at school and know he’s not in trouble.

That wasn’t the case a year ago. Wooden told Channel 2’s Carol Sbarge that back then, he was staying in trouble doing what he described as regular teenage stuff.

As a result of that trouble, Wooden was getting suspended, which he described as boring because he would just be at home.

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DeKalb County School Administrators realized suspension -- whether in school or out -- isn’t always the best solution when students get in trouble.

DeKalb Regional School Superintendent Ralph Simpson said they want to make sure they’re emphasizing not just focusing on the deed, but on the doing.

Simpson said it allows schools to pay attention to the student and what challenge may have happened and what is going on in the student’s life.

That philosophy prompted DeKalb Schools to revise the code of conduct for students.

Some of the things that were added in the revised code of conduct include character traits, response to intervention and positive behavioral intervention.

Wooden started meeting weekly with student engagement coach Brian Williams.

Williams said he used small incentives with Wooden, and connected him to future goals.

Williams thinks that was very important for the high schooler.

Sbarge asked Wooden if he had been skeptical at first, or open.

Wooden said at first he wasn’t sure what to think, especially because he didn’t even know the student engagement coach.

But Wooden says having weekly meetings with someone holding him accountable on his grades and his actions has changed his life.

Wooden is now a well-respected quarterback on the football team at McNair High and a hard-working student.

He says he’s made big progress and is now getting all A’s and B’s. Wooden is looking at getting scholarships and says God is really blessing him now.

Cox Media Group