ASSIGNMENT 1

SHOULD A COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY HAVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND

STUDENTS WHO BRAG ABOUT BREAKING ITS RULES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

PLATFORMS?

Rules are guidelines for actions and that are used to evaluate actions as either good, bad, right or

wrong. In order to provide a safe and positive learning environment, there needs to be rules that

govern student conduct. Rules level the ground for all students regardless of their background:

rich or poor, black or white. It is general knowledge that teachers face a great challenge when

dealing with behavior of a large group of youth day in day out however, when it comes to how,

when and against whom the rules are enforced, there is less consensus. In a university or college,

there are five categories of rules; Relational rules, Personal rules, Etiquette rules, Structuring

rules and protecting rules.

When a student breaks a school rule intentionally or unintentionally, this disrupts the code of

conduct set by the college or university and the same can be managed informally within the

school. However, when a student breaks school rules and brags about on social media this

interferes with instruction to other students. In this case the matter is referred to the disciplinary

master or mistress to determine whether the offence is a low level or high level.

In school suspension(ISS) is a form of punishment where students are kept in school and doing

work but isolated from the rest of the student body. This mode of punishment reduces the out of

school suspension numbers and mostly given to small offences. ISS is an effective tool when

intending to solve root problems, encouraging positive behavior and discourage repeat offenders.

For effective in school suspension, several factors are key;

Consistent criteria and rules;
Students respond well to structure and consistency not when decisions ae made day by day.
When the criteria for in school suspension is not well explained, students won’t know if what
they are doing is wrong. Teachers should enforce ISS in a way that does not show bias towards
racial, or economic differences.

Effective professional development for teachers;

Students should only be referred to ISS only when its necessary.

Academic and behavioral support;

ISS offers a unique opportunity for qualified staff to sit down with students one on one and
uncover the root of the issue and find possible ways of preventing it from happening again for
example speaking with a student counselor.
Parent involvement;
Involving parents in ISS helps get the student help they need both at home and in school. This
will also build a positive relationship between the student teacher, teacher-parent and parent-
student.
Out of school suspension(OSS) is a temporary exclusion from school and all its activities and it

only stops short of complete expulsion from school. Out of school suspension is not only

embarrassing for the student but may also have long-term effects on his or her academic

progress. A student who commits a high level offence can be suspended for a fixed period of

time but not exceeding five school going days and a suspension can only be extended up to a

total of 45 days in any one school year. Offenses most likely to warrant an out of school

suspension include possession of weapons, bullying, use and sell of drugs within the school

premises as ruled in Morse v. Frederick, (2007), extreme disregard for the safety of oneself or

others and repeated smaller offences.

To sum it up colleges and universities need to reserve the right to suspend students who brag on

social media on breaking school rules.

REFERENCES

Morse v. Frederick, 551 U.S. __, 127 S. Ct. 2618 (2007)

Tatro v. university of Minnesota (2012)S

Hrbak, M., & Settiles, D. (n.d.). Effective in-school suspension programs. Retrieved from

https://www.kycss.org/pdfs-docs/clear-pdf/issuesbriefs/iss.pdf.