New Disobedience Bill Helpful for Students

JONATHAN LE Staff Writer

Starting in the next school year, administrators in most grades are not allowed to suspend students for willful defiance, the act of disrupting school activities or defying the authority of school staff. Senate bill 419 is what enforces this new rule amongst schools in California. This bill does not prevent suspensions for any other malicious actions such as selling drugs or bringing weapons to school. Students can still be suspended but, this bill primarily focuses on the idea of willful defiance. 

This bill could be viewed as something that will encourage willful defiance, as it is taking power away from teachers to prevent it through fear of suspension. However, the bill does not ban the alternatives to punishing a student for unjust behavior. Teachers and other staff members can still assign punishments that do not include suspension to discourage acts of willful defiance. 

This bill is supported for many reasons. One of these is because of how severe a form of punishment suspension really is. Suspension should be due to something that truly crosses the lines such as causing harm to others. Disruptions and defiance can be handled in other ways such as with detentions or through other forms of classroom management.

 Students should not be suspended based on disruption within a class. There are other alternatives to discontinue the student’s bad behavior and the solution should not be a suspension.