November 19, 2003
NY Times: In Schools, Bad Behavior Is Shown the Door
This New York Times article about discipline in the Connecticut school system looks into how the number of suspensions in that state have risen radically over the past few years -- nearly doubling over the course of the two years following the Columbine school shootings.
Perhaps Connecticut is the exception, not the rule. Or perhaps not. The first paragraph below certainly sounds to me like it could be describing the nation, rather than just one state.
In Schools, Bad Behavior Is Shown the Door
(Link to original)
By JANE GORDON
Published: November 16, 2003
In the state's school systems, zero tolerance has become more than a catch phrase, more than just a stern warning that misbehaving students had better shape up. It is the way schools now do business, an almost unyielding policy that has been living up to its name.
As a result, students are being kicked out of schools like never before. The number of suspensions jumped about 90 percent from 1998-1999 to 2000-2001. In the 2000-2001 school year, 90,559 children were suspended from school around the state, up from 57,626 two years earlier. The State Department of Education did not provide statistics for earlier years, but education experts said the numbers have never been higher.
Even kindergarteners haven't been spared. For that grade alone, the rate of suspensions/expulsions almost doubled over a two-year period, to 901 for the 2002-2003 school year, from 463 in 2001-2002, according to figures provided by Jeanne Milstein, the state's child advocate. She said they were suspended and expelled for such things as fighting, defiance, and temper tantrums. "I would have been suspended from kindergarten," she said.
Some researchers, child advocacy groups and parents blame the increase on the fallout from the zero-tolerance policies that swept the country during the Reagan-Bush years and became entrenched after the Columbine shootings in 1999. The evolution of the policies mirrors the climb in suspension and expulsion numbers in Connecticut's public schools, as administrations coping with less money and fewer services pull problematic students out of the classroom, then out of the school. In Newington, for example, the high school began a policy about five years ago to not only automatically suspend students caught fighting at the high school, but also have them arrested and charged with breach of peace.
Some administrators said they weren't thrilled with the zero-tolerance trend, but said it is sometimes a struggle for teachers to keep control of their classrooms.
"I think it's a horrific practice except in extreme cases when we remove the child from harming himself or harming his classmates," said Dr. Doris Kurtz, the superintendent of schools in New Britain. "But education comes under attack when you do, and when you don't. Many schools don't have the means to deal with these kids. The principal can't sit there and babysit children all day, there are no in-school suspension rooms and someone to watch over them, there is a severe lack of resources. So they suspend them, because sometimes it's the only avenue.
"The other kids have rights, and parents want to see their children being educated," she said. "Some children come with problems and issues so severe, even at very young ages, they disrupt the whole school setting."
And it's not just urban schools that are struggling with discipline. New Fairfield schools have had more expulsions in the first couple of months of this school year than in any of the five full years that Dr. Kathleen Matusiak has been superintendent.
"A lot of the issues have to do with bringing weapons - box cutters, knives - to school, not necessarily with an intention to hurt," Dr. Matusiak said. "Some have involved alcohol and drugs, poor judgment. We have clearly articulated conduct codes that don't tolerate those things in our schools. Our schools are for teaching and learning."
Zero tolerance first appeared as the name of a 1986 program that impounded boats carrying drugs. In 1994, the Gun-Free Schools Act became law and called for a student to be expelled for one full year for carrying a firearm to school. Schools broadened the policy, using the same severe disciplinary measures for varying degrees of behavior.
"A lot of this has to do with kids who are very undisciplined, especially at the urban schools, where the children haven't received discipline at home," said Susan Patrick of the Governor's Prevention Partnership, a nonprofit anti-drug-abuse organization. "It's very complicated and messy. I'm in agreement with zero tolerance for keeping dangerous weapons out of school, but the extension of it, to broadly address disruptive behaviors, I don't agree with that at all."
The organization convened a task force to look at the issue, documenting that increased rates of suspension and expulsion contributed to increased risks of a student dropping out of school.
"On the other hand, educators have indicated that they are experiencing increasing frequency and severity of disruptive behaviors among students," the report said. "The task force believes the emerging pattern in Connecticut public schools increasing use of suspension and expulsion as mainstays of our disciplinary response to behavior problems should be reversed."
They also trained 500 student assistants to move into the schools to identify disciplinary problems and work with families to devise a plan for support. Ms. Patrick said the task force found that about 10 to 20 percent of students in the public schools required mental health services. The other 80 to 90 percent, she said, had other needs, including improved parent education and better teaching training.
The dismissal of very young children from the classroom, for example, surprised many people. They said that questionable behavior in a 5-year-old can be interpreted quite differently than that in a 16-year-old.
"It's inexcusable to expel a kindergarten child," said Shelley Geballe, co-president of Connecticut Voices for Children, a statewide advocacy group. "The goal of a kindergarten program should be to provide the skills of not only academics but behavior. Zero tolerance that results in pushing out kids is wrongheaded, and I get concerned particularly now that we have a reduction in access to mental-health services, we have teachers who may not be well-trained in understanding the emotional and developmental needs of young kids, and you have the No Child Left Behind pressures that provide further incentive to push kids out to get those standardized test scores up."
A mother with a boy in the Hartford school system said her son, who is now 10, has been suspended repeatedly over the years for aggressive behavior. He is now being tutored for two hours a day outside the classroom.
"I've tried to explain to the principal that suspending my son is not going to better him in any way," the mother, who asked that her name not be used, said. "He needs to be sitting in a structured classroom, he needs teachers who understand children and know how to maneuver around them. To suspend little kids, it's ridiculous. At 10 years old, these are the most important years of school. If you don't get it then, you're not going to get it."
Steve Edwards became principal of East Hartford High School in 1992, after the school's administrators had embraced zero tolerance and suspension numbers were high.
A student brought a gun to school soon after Mr. Edwards arrived, and he was promptly expelled. Not long after, another student was found with a small pocket knife in his pocket. "He never brandished it," Mr. Edwards said. "I don't know how we even discovered it was there."
The Board of Education expelled him, too. Mr. Edwards disagreed with the second punishment, deeming it too extreme for the offense.
"The young man who had the gun had extensive history, the other kid had a couple of detentions. But they both received the same punishment," said Mr. Edwards, who left the high school last year to become vice president of the National Crime Prevention Council. "There was no flexibility, no taking into account the history of the child. So we took a different approach after that."
The approach changed so drastically that in the final eight years of Mr. Edwards' 10-year tenure at the school, not one child was expelled from East Hartford High School, he said. Counseling, a vocation component or volunteer work in the community, and a continuance of the education of the child, somewhere in the school if not in the classroom, contributed to the decrease, he said.
In Bridgeport, a city whose suspensions and expulsion rate climbed to 7,271 in the 2000-2001 school year from 6,606 the year before, a philosophical change has taken place. The city's superintendent, Sonia Diaz-Salcedo, who left the New York City school system four years ago to run Bridgeport's schools, said she was determined to bring the numbers down. The past two years she has done so. Two years ago, the number decreased to a little more than 6,500. Last year, it dropped to 6,286.
"Teachers were using suspensions and expulsions a lot," Ms. Diaz-Salcedo said. "We talked to our staff about student discipline, we've done a lot of professional development. Over all, we've tried to instill a very different message about students and the culture in schools. We are promoting a culture of caring."
Efforts to bring down expulsion and suspension rates can backfire. Hartford teachers protested when three middle-school students were suspended for five days last year for assaulting a substitute teacher. Teachers accused the administration of trying to improve the struggling system's public face without making significant changes and met with the police to try to force the school system to report violence to the police.
The State Department of Education numbers document a wildly fluctuating record for Hartford, with 226 expulsions and 1,076 suspensions in 1999-2001, and a decrease of expulsions, to 43, the next year, according to education department figures. But suspensions jumped to 9,248.
The state determined in a report this year that there were no "persistently dangerous schools" operating in Connecticut, but talk to Hartford teachers. They disagreed.
"We've had so many staff injured," said Tim Murphy, president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers. "We have seen a tremendous effort to reduce the numbers of suspensions and dropouts, but at what expense? We're facing a very hostile environment, and we are very exposed here."
Hartford schools have long been the Achilles heel of the state educational system, and little has worked to change them. Gangs in the schools, stories of parents assaulting teachers, including a case of a parent who struck a school principal two years ago, has contributed to a sense of futility in certain city schools.
"Every instance of bullying is supposed to be reported," Mr. Murphy said. "It's widespread, invasive in this school system. But the Hartford schools are telling us there were only three cases of bullying in the whole system last year. Are you kidding me?" He laughed bitterly. "There is a kind of belief that you have to tolerate a lesser standard of behavior now, for inner-city kids especially. We object to that strenuously."
Sandy Cruz-Serrano, senior advisor to the Hartford superintendent of schools, said she is aware of the union's complaints.
"In reviewing our discipline code, we are addressing the issue of accurate reporting," she said. "The Hartford Federation of Teachers continues to partner with us on this revision. "States vary in their definition of expulsion and suspension. In Connecticut, expulsions can range from 11 to 180 days and must be approved by the local board of education. Suspensions are handed out by the school administration, to a maximum of 10 days. Once a child is removed from school, the district is bound by law to provide a minimum of 10 hours a week of instruction. Doctors at Hartford Hospital said they are seeing higher numbers of students brought into the emergency room, as administrators at a loss for what to do with belligerent students call police to bring the students to the hospital for psychiatric evaluations. New Britain High School said it seeks the evaluations to determine the cause of the behavior, instead of simply punishing students for it.
"An increasing number of kids from any number of towns, and various schools, are ending up in the E.R. because they've had a fight," said Dr. Lisa Karabelnik, a child psychiatrist at the Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford. Dr. Karabelnik said she had seen about 50 students for psychiatric evaluations in the emergency room since school began this year, almost one child per day. The hospital prefers that schools contact the Wheeler Clinic in Plainville, which operates an emergency mobile psychiatric service for children.
"Unfortunately," she said, "most of the schools dealing with these children don't have the resources now to work with them successfully."
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
November 10, 2003
Brookfield Central Makes the NY Post's "Weird But True" Column
From the New York Post's "Weird But True" feature:
(link to original)
November 10, 2003 --
A student at Brookfield Central HS in Wisconsin got suspended for making a CD in which he rapped that if Principal Mark Cerutti didn't get out of town, he would "beat your ass down."
Sashwat Sing, 15, was also charged with "gross disobedience or misconduct," an offense as serious as making a bomb threat.
District won't seek to expel
District won't seek to expel
(link to original)
But Brookfield student who made explicit CD must see counselor
By REID J. EPSTEIN
Brookfield - When Sashwat Singh returns to Brookfield Central High School today, he knows he'll be pegged with questions about the rap album that earned him a five-day suspension. He also knows he won't be able to answer most of them.
"I'm going to have to ignore most of it," he said. "Because if I make a disturbance in the school, they'll try to suspend me again for that."
An agreement Monday between the Elmbrook School District and Singh's family dictates that the district will not move to expel the 15-year-old junior, but requires him to see a school counselor to "make sure that he's not a Dylan Klebold-type kid," said Singh's Milwaukee-based attorney, Andrew Franklin.
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris fatally shot 12 students and one teacher before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999.
Franklin called Singh's reinstatement "a victory for free speech and a relatively decent compromise."
Mark Cerutti, the Brookfield Central principal, suspended Singh Oct. 29 after acquiring a copy of the student's homemade rap CD, which contains what the school said was a threat to Cerutti. On one of the disc's 14 tracks, Singh raps that if Cerutti doesn't leave Brookfield, Singh will "beat your ass down."
Matt Gibson, the Elmbrook School District superintendent, said Monday that he found the lyrics about Cerutti to be threatening but did not "find the desire in the student to actually act on those lyrics."
Singh also uses a slew of sexually explicit slurs to describe Cerutti.
Gibson declined to comment on the rest of the disc, titled "Minus The-izzle," which contains rants that reference illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts, denigrations of Singh's mother, classmates and high school, and a rap he used when campaigning to be class treasurer. The track about Singh's principal is the only one school officials found worthy of punishment.
Cerutti initially defined the disc as "gross disobedience or misconduct," an offense on par with making a bomb threat, bringing guns to school and arson.
Singh said he did not intend for the disc, which he spent three months producing using equipment on his home computer, to be a threat, but that it was "just random words that rhymed."
In his official review of Singh's suspension, Gibson wrote that because Cerutti wasn't the only person mentioned in threatening language on the disc, he would not move to expel Singh.
"It doesn't mean that the principal didn't feel the comments were threatening," Gibson said.
Suspension won't be purged
Franklin said he hoped the district would expunge the suspension from Singh's record, but that getting the boy back in school was more important than fighting a legal battle. Had Singh not agreed to drop his opposition to the suspension, the district could have moved to expel him, which would have brought an additional suspension of up to 10 days.
"Do we think we could win an expulsion hearing? Yes," Franklin said. "Do we think we could win a lawsuit? Yes. But that's not in the kid's benefit to go through all of that."
Singh said he was disappointed the suspension was not revoked, but that he is looking forward to going back to school.
"The administration basically tried to make it sound like they were going to expel me and now they're doing us a favor," he said. "We're going to give up now because it's not worth going through the struggle."
During his suspension, Singh, a junior enrolled in honors and advanced placement classes, was able to retrieve homework assignments from his classmates, and he will be able to make up work he missed. He did not miss any exams. Classes were dismissed on three additional days, prolonging Singh's absence until today.
Singh, who is in the school band and choir, said his rap album saga may make him more popular with his classmates, but "I don't know if it's in a good way or not."
From the Nov. 11, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
November 08, 2003
Student may be expelled for rap
Posted Nov. 08, 2003
Student may be expelled for rap
(link to original)
CD contained threatening lyrics against principal
The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — A school superintendent Friday delayed deciding whether to hold an expulsion hearing for an honors student for making a rap CD with a lyric that officials say threatened the principal.
Matt Gibson, Elmbrook School District superintendent, said he extended Friday’s deadline to Tuesday morning to gather more information about the case of 15-year-old Sashwat Singh.
Mark Cerutti, Brookfield Central High School principal, suspended Singh Oct. 29 for a lyric on Singh’s homemade rap compact disc.
Gibson extended the timeline for the next step during a 90-minute meeting set up at the request of Andrew Franklin, the boy’s attorney. “We had a good two-way communication,” Gibson said. “We gained some time to work through the issues.”
Gibson and Franklin declined to talk about the specifics of the meeting, citing Singh’s privacy.
Singh was suspended for “gross disobedience or misconduct,” which would put Singh’s actions on par with a bomb threat, arson or bringing guns to school.
His 32-minute, 14-track CD includes references to illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts, Franklin said.
The rap about Cerutti suggests that if the principal doesn’t leave Brookfield, Singh will “(expletive) beat your ass down.” It also uses sexually explicit slurs to describe the principal.
Singh will return to class on Tuesday unless Gibson seeks expulsion.
Franklin called the lyrics “absolutely not a threat” and said there were better ways to deal with the issue than suspension or expulsion.
Franklin said Singh was enrolled in advanced placement courses and enjoyed music classes.
Cerutti did not return phone messages from the Associated Press on Friday.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
November 07, 2003
Teen's CD ranted against principal; he's suspended
From WCCO.com/Associated Press:
Teen's CD ranted against principal; he's suspended
(link to original)
Friday November 07, 2003
BROOKFIELD, Wis. (AP) A high school honor student who created a rap compact disc with rants about drugs and sex faces possible expulsion over a lyric that officials say threatened the principal.
Mark Cerutti, principal of Brookfield Central High School, said he first became aware of the CD Oct. 29 and suspended 15-year-old Sashwat Singh later that same day.
``Content is one part of the rationale for the action that's being taken,'' Cerutti said.
Administrators said the disc amounted to ``gross disobedience or misconduct,'' which would put it on a par with a bomb threat, arson or bringing guns to school.
As described in Friday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the 32-minute, 14-track CD includes rants referring to illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts, and it also denigrates classmates, his mother and the school.
The rap about Cerutti, who came to the school at the start of the school year after working in Madison schools and as a consultant, suggests if he doesn't leave Brookfield, Singh will ``beat your ass down.'' It also uses sexually explicit slurs to describe the principal.
Matt Gibson, superintendent of the Elmbrook School District, said the five-day suspension was appropriate, and a ruling on further sanctions would be made before Singh's return. School was not in session for three days since the suspension was ordered, so Singh is due back Tuesday.
Gibson said he was ``fact-finding to determine whether or not to move it toward expulsion.''
If administrators seek expulsion, Singh would be suspended for up to 10 more days and a hearing would be held.
Singh said the CD, recorded over the course of three months and made with home-computer equipment, included lyrics that were ``just random words that rhymed,'' and were not meant as a threat.
``I didn't think I had done anything wrong.''
His father, Dilip Singh, said he couldn't understand why his son was given the school's harshest penalty.
Other such offenses ``have to do with drugs and guns,'' Dilip Singh said. ``When you look at what he did and compare one to the other, it doesn't make sense.''
However, ``I don't approve of that kind of language,'' Dilip Singh said.
The suspension may mark the first time a Wisconsin high school student has been removed from school for a song he wrote, said Ken Cole, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
He said a threat couched in music ``isn't a matter of all in good sport or fun. If some incident occurs a month from now, someone will say, 'You knew back then.' We have to treat every incident very seriously.''
Sashwat Singh is a member of the school's band and choir and is enrolled in Advanced Placement and honors courses.
He sold two copies of the CD a month ago and gave three others away, with one finally reaching Cerutti.
Andrew Franklin, the teen's attorney, said the boy was simply ``expressing himself'' and the school has no right to discipline him.
``They're kind of like love songs and fantasies,'' he said. ``It's a long list of outrageous things that he throws out there. I think it's an attempt to make him look like a deviant or a threat.''
``Nothing about this is inherently more threatening than an Eminem CD,'' he said.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
November 06, 2003
School suspends teen for rap lyric
School suspends teen for rap lyric
(link to original)
(copy at DMUSIC w/comments posted)
Brookfield student says song not meant as threat
By REID J. EPSTEIN
repstein@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Nov. 6, 2003
Brookfield - A 15-year-old Brookfield Central High School student's homemade rhymes earned him a five-day suspension and could get the honor student expelled because of a lyric deemed threatening toward the principal - perhaps the first such case in Wisconsin.
Over the course of three months, Sashwat Singh wrote and recorded a 32-minute, 14-track rap compact disc featuring rants that made reference to illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts. He denigrates classmates, his mother and his high school. One track is a rap he used when campaigning to be class treasurer.
School administrators called the disc, which includes a song about the principal, Mark Cerutti, and conditions at the school, "gross disobedience or misconduct," an offense on par with making a bomb threat, bringing guns to school and arson.
But Singh's father, Dilip Singh, said he couldn't understand why his son was given the school's harshest penalty.
The other offenses "have to do with drugs and guns," Dilip Singh said. "When you look at what he did and compare one to the other, it doesn't make sense."
Sashwat Singh insisted the lyrics weren't meant as a threat, but "just random words that rhymed. I didn't think I had done anything wrong."
The vulgar lyrics suggest that if Cerutti doesn't get out of Brookfield, Singh will "beat your ass down." Singh, a Brookfield Central junior, also uses a slew of sexually explicit slurs to describe Cerutti.
"I don't approve of that kind of language," Dilip Singh said.
Cerutti said that he first became aware of Sashwat Singh's CD on Oct. 29, and that he was suspended later that day.
"Content is one part of the rationale for the action that's being taken," Cerutti said.
Matt Gibson, the Elmbrook School District superintendent, said he was "fact-finding to determine whether or not to move it toward expulsion." Gibson, who called the decision to issue Singh a five-day suspension "appropriate," said a ruling on further sanctions will come before Tuesday, when Singh is due back in school.
Case may be a first
Singh's suspension may mark the first time a high school student in Wisconsin has been removed from school for a song he'd written, said Ken Cole, the executive director of the Madison-based Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
Cole said a threat couched in music made outside school "isn't a matter of all in good sport or fun. If some incident occurs a month from now, someone will say, 'You knew back then.' We have to treat every incident very seriously."
A member of the school's band and choir who is enrolled in Advanced Placement and honors courses, Singh recorded and made the album with equipment on his home computer. Then, a month ago, he sold two copies to classmates and gave away three others. One of the copies landed in Cerutti's hands, and Oct. 29, the principal suspended Singh for five days. School has been dismissed on three days during that time, making Tuesday the first day Singh can return to school.
Dan Macallair, the executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, said the suspension is indicative of a national trend toward zero tolerance in schools.
"We're punishing kids for things that we adults never would have been punished for when we were that age," he said. "If we try to criminalize every comment that adolescents made, all our kids would be locked up."
Neither Macallair nor Cole was familiar with any other case of a student being disciplined for a song recorded outside school.
If Gibson moves to expel Singh, the boy would be suspended for up to 10 more days, and an expulsion hearing would be held then.
'Kind of like love songs'
Andrew Franklin, Singh's Milwaukee-based attorney, said the boy was simply "expressing himself" and the school has no right to discipline him, even if some people object to portions of the CD on moral grounds.
"They're kind of like love songs and fantasies," he said of the disc's content. "It's a long list of outrageous things that he throws out there. I think it's an attempt to make him look like a deviant or a threat."
Franklin said Singh's lyrics do not constitute a threat to Cerutti, with whom Singh had never spoken.
"Nothing about this is inherently more threatening than an Eminem CD," he said, referring to the rapper who has been criticized for defaming women and gays in his lyrics. "He was expressing a viewpoint about how he thought the school was operating as a police state."
Cerutti referred questions about the disc's lyrics to Gibson, who said Thursday that he had not yet listened to it.
After Singh's suspension, Brookfield police followed him home and confiscated his home computer. Police returned the computer Nov. 4.
Dilip Singh said he has yet to listen to the entire disc but did read the text of the lyrics.
Sashwat Singh said his parents "weren't as mad as I thought they would be."
In any case, Singh said he wasn't a fan of his principal, who came to Brookfield Central at the start of this school year after working in the Madison schools and as an education consultant.
From the Nov. 7, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
October 09, 2003
Bad behavior at rowdy rally bans two students from Homecoming
Bad behavior at rowdy rally bans two students from Homecoming
(link to original)
Oct 9 2003 12:00AM
Food fight, lewd poem lowlights of annual school assembly
By Susan Nord
Staff Writer
A pep rally held last Thursday at Brookfield Central High School spiraled into a contest of one-upsmanship that led to disciplinary action against two students.
"Not the best moment for Brookfield Central High School," Principal Mark Cerutti said.
He emphasized that the vast majority of students were well-behaved at the assembly.
The pep rally, in which various athletic teams are introduced and the Homecoming Court is presented, had pockets of bad behavior from the beginning. Several boys believed to be in the senior class, turned their backs as one of the school's administrators spoke at the pep assembly. Later, the same boys were seen teasing an underclassman from across the gym. The underclassman was eventually escorted out of the assembly.
Members of the boys volleyball team read a lewd poem that ended with the word "masturbate." Cerutti said he did not hear the entire poem, but walked in toward the end of the reading.
"Appropriate and comprehensive disciplinary action was taken," Cerutti said, referring to the disciplined students.
He would not reveal the two students who were disciplined, however, two members of the boys volleyball team were suspended from three matches for unspecified reasons.
The two boys were banned from further participation in Homecoming activities last weekend. Cerutti would not say if the boys were suspended from school.
Another incident that occurred during the nearly two-hour assembly included a pie-eating contest among the Homecoming Court that devolved into a food fight, resulting in whipped cream being spilled on the gym floor.
"We are responding to specific incidents, and the leadership team will be examining the week of Homecoming activities," Cerutti, who is in his first year as principal at Central, said.
Students said that the assembly was not out of the ordinary and that it could be a case of students reacting to Cerutti's tougher style.
"Because Cerutti has been more strict than usual with the Homecoming events. People were a little more resistant to what he was doing, like the seniors standing up and turning around, that's not (what normally goes on)," junior Michelle Hoelker said.
Junior Amanda Hansen said that the boys who were disciplined should have only received detention.
"They were just words to me," Hansen said.
She said that the lewd poem was more of a joke than anything.
Junior Megan Hourihan agreed.
"I thought it was hilarious, but it could have been in a different place," Hourihan said.
Senior Tim Urbashich said the assembly was just a littler crazier than the ones he has attended in previous years.
"We always pull stuff at assemblies," Urbashich said. "We didn't get out of line with it."
Before the Homecoming assembly misbehavior, Cerutti said the faculty and student leadership were planning to meet and will discuss all assemblies, who is involved and what the assemblies are meant to achieve.
©Brookfield News 2003
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
NY Times: In Schools, Bad Behavior Is Shown the Door
This New York Times article about discipline in the Connecticut school system looks into how the number of suspensions in that state have risen radically over the past few years -- nearly doubling over the course of the two years following the Columbine school shootings.
Perhaps Connecticut is the exception, not the rule. Or perhaps not. The first paragraph below certainly sounds to me like it could be describing the nation, rather than just one state.
In Schools, Bad Behavior Is Shown the Door
(Link to original)
By JANE GORDON
Published: November 16, 2003
In the state's school systems, zero tolerance has become more than a catch phrase, more than just a stern warning that misbehaving students had better shape up. It is the way schools now do business, an almost unyielding policy that has been living up to its name.
As a result, students are being kicked out of schools like never before. The number of suspensions jumped about 90 percent from 1998-1999 to 2000-2001. In the 2000-2001 school year, 90,559 children were suspended from school around the state, up from 57,626 two years earlier. The State Department of Education did not provide statistics for earlier years, but education experts said the numbers have never been higher.
Even kindergarteners haven't been spared. For that grade alone, the rate of suspensions/expulsions almost doubled over a two-year period, to 901 for the 2002-2003 school year, from 463 in 2001-2002, according to figures provided by Jeanne Milstein, the state's child advocate. She said they were suspended and expelled for such things as fighting, defiance, and temper tantrums. "I would have been suspended from kindergarten," she said.
Some researchers, child advocacy groups and parents blame the increase on the fallout from the zero-tolerance policies that swept the country during the Reagan-Bush years and became entrenched after the Columbine shootings in 1999. The evolution of the policies mirrors the climb in suspension and expulsion numbers in Connecticut's public schools, as administrations coping with less money and fewer services pull problematic students out of the classroom, then out of the school. In Newington, for example, the high school began a policy about five years ago to not only automatically suspend students caught fighting at the high school, but also have them arrested and charged with breach of peace.
Some administrators said they weren't thrilled with the zero-tolerance trend, but said it is sometimes a struggle for teachers to keep control of their classrooms.
"I think it's a horrific practice except in extreme cases when we remove the child from harming himself or harming his classmates," said Dr. Doris Kurtz, the superintendent of schools in New Britain. "But education comes under attack when you do, and when you don't. Many schools don't have the means to deal with these kids. The principal can't sit there and babysit children all day, there are no in-school suspension rooms and someone to watch over them, there is a severe lack of resources. So they suspend them, because sometimes it's the only avenue.
"The other kids have rights, and parents want to see their children being educated," she said. "Some children come with problems and issues so severe, even at very young ages, they disrupt the whole school setting."
And it's not just urban schools that are struggling with discipline. New Fairfield schools have had more expulsions in the first couple of months of this school year than in any of the five full years that Dr. Kathleen Matusiak has been superintendent.
"A lot of the issues have to do with bringing weapons - box cutters, knives - to school, not necessarily with an intention to hurt," Dr. Matusiak said. "Some have involved alcohol and drugs, poor judgment. We have clearly articulated conduct codes that don't tolerate those things in our schools. Our schools are for teaching and learning."
Zero tolerance first appeared as the name of a 1986 program that impounded boats carrying drugs. In 1994, the Gun-Free Schools Act became law and called for a student to be expelled for one full year for carrying a firearm to school. Schools broadened the policy, using the same severe disciplinary measures for varying degrees of behavior.
"A lot of this has to do with kids who are very undisciplined, especially at the urban schools, where the children haven't received discipline at home," said Susan Patrick of the Governor's Prevention Partnership, a nonprofit anti-drug-abuse organization. "It's very complicated and messy. I'm in agreement with zero tolerance for keeping dangerous weapons out of school, but the extension of it, to broadly address disruptive behaviors, I don't agree with that at all."
The organization convened a task force to look at the issue, documenting that increased rates of suspension and expulsion contributed to increased risks of a student dropping out of school.
"On the other hand, educators have indicated that they are experiencing increasing frequency and severity of disruptive behaviors among students," the report said. "The task force believes the emerging pattern in Connecticut public schools increasing use of suspension and expulsion as mainstays of our disciplinary response to behavior problems should be reversed."
They also trained 500 student assistants to move into the schools to identify disciplinary problems and work with families to devise a plan for support. Ms. Patrick said the task force found that about 10 to 20 percent of students in the public schools required mental health services. The other 80 to 90 percent, she said, had other needs, including improved parent education and better teaching training.
The dismissal of very young children from the classroom, for example, surprised many people. They said that questionable behavior in a 5-year-old can be interpreted quite differently than that in a 16-year-old.
"It's inexcusable to expel a kindergarten child," said Shelley Geballe, co-president of Connecticut Voices for Children, a statewide advocacy group. "The goal of a kindergarten program should be to provide the skills of not only academics but behavior. Zero tolerance that results in pushing out kids is wrongheaded, and I get concerned particularly now that we have a reduction in access to mental-health services, we have teachers who may not be well-trained in understanding the emotional and developmental needs of young kids, and you have the No Child Left Behind pressures that provide further incentive to push kids out to get those standardized test scores up."
A mother with a boy in the Hartford school system said her son, who is now 10, has been suspended repeatedly over the years for aggressive behavior. He is now being tutored for two hours a day outside the classroom.
"I've tried to explain to the principal that suspending my son is not going to better him in any way," the mother, who asked that her name not be used, said. "He needs to be sitting in a structured classroom, he needs teachers who understand children and know how to maneuver around them. To suspend little kids, it's ridiculous. At 10 years old, these are the most important years of school. If you don't get it then, you're not going to get it."
Steve Edwards became principal of East Hartford High School in 1992, after the school's administrators had embraced zero tolerance and suspension numbers were high.
A student brought a gun to school soon after Mr. Edwards arrived, and he was promptly expelled. Not long after, another student was found with a small pocket knife in his pocket. "He never brandished it," Mr. Edwards said. "I don't know how we even discovered it was there."
The Board of Education expelled him, too. Mr. Edwards disagreed with the second punishment, deeming it too extreme for the offense.
"The young man who had the gun had extensive history, the other kid had a couple of detentions. But they both received the same punishment," said Mr. Edwards, who left the high school last year to become vice president of the National Crime Prevention Council. "There was no flexibility, no taking into account the history of the child. So we took a different approach after that."
The approach changed so drastically that in the final eight years of Mr. Edwards' 10-year tenure at the school, not one child was expelled from East Hartford High School, he said. Counseling, a vocation component or volunteer work in the community, and a continuance of the education of the child, somewhere in the school if not in the classroom, contributed to the decrease, he said.
In Bridgeport, a city whose suspensions and expulsion rate climbed to 7,271 in the 2000-2001 school year from 6,606 the year before, a philosophical change has taken place. The city's superintendent, Sonia Diaz-Salcedo, who left the New York City school system four years ago to run Bridgeport's schools, said she was determined to bring the numbers down. The past two years she has done so. Two years ago, the number decreased to a little more than 6,500. Last year, it dropped to 6,286.
"Teachers were using suspensions and expulsions a lot," Ms. Diaz-Salcedo said. "We talked to our staff about student discipline, we've done a lot of professional development. Over all, we've tried to instill a very different message about students and the culture in schools. We are promoting a culture of caring."
Efforts to bring down expulsion and suspension rates can backfire. Hartford teachers protested when three middle-school students were suspended for five days last year for assaulting a substitute teacher. Teachers accused the administration of trying to improve the struggling system's public face without making significant changes and met with the police to try to force the school system to report violence to the police.
The State Department of Education numbers document a wildly fluctuating record for Hartford, with 226 expulsions and 1,076 suspensions in 1999-2001, and a decrease of expulsions, to 43, the next year, according to education department figures. But suspensions jumped to 9,248.
The state determined in a report this year that there were no "persistently dangerous schools" operating in Connecticut, but talk to Hartford teachers. They disagreed.
"We've had so many staff injured," said Tim Murphy, president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers. "We have seen a tremendous effort to reduce the numbers of suspensions and dropouts, but at what expense? We're facing a very hostile environment, and we are very exposed here."
Hartford schools have long been the Achilles heel of the state educational system, and little has worked to change them. Gangs in the schools, stories of parents assaulting teachers, including a case of a parent who struck a school principal two years ago, has contributed to a sense of futility in certain city schools.
"Every instance of bullying is supposed to be reported," Mr. Murphy said. "It's widespread, invasive in this school system. But the Hartford schools are telling us there were only three cases of bullying in the whole system last year. Are you kidding me?" He laughed bitterly. "There is a kind of belief that you have to tolerate a lesser standard of behavior now, for inner-city kids especially. We object to that strenuously."
Sandy Cruz-Serrano, senior advisor to the Hartford superintendent of schools, said she is aware of the union's complaints.
"In reviewing our discipline code, we are addressing the issue of accurate reporting," she said. "The Hartford Federation of Teachers continues to partner with us on this revision. "States vary in their definition of expulsion and suspension. In Connecticut, expulsions can range from 11 to 180 days and must be approved by the local board of education. Suspensions are handed out by the school administration, to a maximum of 10 days. Once a child is removed from school, the district is bound by law to provide a minimum of 10 hours a week of instruction. Doctors at Hartford Hospital said they are seeing higher numbers of students brought into the emergency room, as administrators at a loss for what to do with belligerent students call police to bring the students to the hospital for psychiatric evaluations. New Britain High School said it seeks the evaluations to determine the cause of the behavior, instead of simply punishing students for it.
"An increasing number of kids from any number of towns, and various schools, are ending up in the E.R. because they've had a fight," said Dr. Lisa Karabelnik, a child psychiatrist at the Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford. Dr. Karabelnik said she had seen about 50 students for psychiatric evaluations in the emergency room since school began this year, almost one child per day. The hospital prefers that schools contact the Wheeler Clinic in Plainville, which operates an emergency mobile psychiatric service for children.
"Unfortunately," she said, "most of the schools dealing with these children don't have the resources now to work with them successfully."
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
Brookfield Central Makes the NY Post's "Weird But True" Column
From the New York Post's "Weird But True" feature:
(link to original)
November 10, 2003 --
A student at Brookfield Central HS in Wisconsin got suspended for making a CD in which he rapped that if Principal Mark Cerutti didn't get out of town, he would "beat your ass down."
Sashwat Sing, 15, was also charged with "gross disobedience or misconduct," an offense as serious as making a bomb threat.
District won't seek to expel
District won't seek to expel
(link to original)
But Brookfield student who made explicit CD must see counselor
By REID J. EPSTEIN
Brookfield - When Sashwat Singh returns to Brookfield Central High School today, he knows he'll be pegged with questions about the rap album that earned him a five-day suspension. He also knows he won't be able to answer most of them.
"I'm going to have to ignore most of it," he said. "Because if I make a disturbance in the school, they'll try to suspend me again for that."
An agreement Monday between the Elmbrook School District and Singh's family dictates that the district will not move to expel the 15-year-old junior, but requires him to see a school counselor to "make sure that he's not a Dylan Klebold-type kid," said Singh's Milwaukee-based attorney, Andrew Franklin.
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris fatally shot 12 students and one teacher before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999.
Franklin called Singh's reinstatement "a victory for free speech and a relatively decent compromise."
Mark Cerutti, the Brookfield Central principal, suspended Singh Oct. 29 after acquiring a copy of the student's homemade rap CD, which contains what the school said was a threat to Cerutti. On one of the disc's 14 tracks, Singh raps that if Cerutti doesn't leave Brookfield, Singh will "beat your ass down."
Matt Gibson, the Elmbrook School District superintendent, said Monday that he found the lyrics about Cerutti to be threatening but did not "find the desire in the student to actually act on those lyrics."
Singh also uses a slew of sexually explicit slurs to describe Cerutti.
Gibson declined to comment on the rest of the disc, titled "Minus The-izzle," which contains rants that reference illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts, denigrations of Singh's mother, classmates and high school, and a rap he used when campaigning to be class treasurer. The track about Singh's principal is the only one school officials found worthy of punishment.
Cerutti initially defined the disc as "gross disobedience or misconduct," an offense on par with making a bomb threat, bringing guns to school and arson.
Singh said he did not intend for the disc, which he spent three months producing using equipment on his home computer, to be a threat, but that it was "just random words that rhymed."
In his official review of Singh's suspension, Gibson wrote that because Cerutti wasn't the only person mentioned in threatening language on the disc, he would not move to expel Singh.
"It doesn't mean that the principal didn't feel the comments were threatening," Gibson said.
Suspension won't be purged
Franklin said he hoped the district would expunge the suspension from Singh's record, but that getting the boy back in school was more important than fighting a legal battle. Had Singh not agreed to drop his opposition to the suspension, the district could have moved to expel him, which would have brought an additional suspension of up to 10 days.
"Do we think we could win an expulsion hearing? Yes," Franklin said. "Do we think we could win a lawsuit? Yes. But that's not in the kid's benefit to go through all of that."
Singh said he was disappointed the suspension was not revoked, but that he is looking forward to going back to school.
"The administration basically tried to make it sound like they were going to expel me and now they're doing us a favor," he said. "We're going to give up now because it's not worth going through the struggle."
During his suspension, Singh, a junior enrolled in honors and advanced placement classes, was able to retrieve homework assignments from his classmates, and he will be able to make up work he missed. He did not miss any exams. Classes were dismissed on three additional days, prolonging Singh's absence until today.
Singh, who is in the school band and choir, said his rap album saga may make him more popular with his classmates, but "I don't know if it's in a good way or not."
From the Nov. 11, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
November 08, 2003
Student may be expelled for rap
Posted Nov. 08, 2003
Student may be expelled for rap
(link to original)
CD contained threatening lyrics against principal
The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — A school superintendent Friday delayed deciding whether to hold an expulsion hearing for an honors student for making a rap CD with a lyric that officials say threatened the principal.
Matt Gibson, Elmbrook School District superintendent, said he extended Friday’s deadline to Tuesday morning to gather more information about the case of 15-year-old Sashwat Singh.
Mark Cerutti, Brookfield Central High School principal, suspended Singh Oct. 29 for a lyric on Singh’s homemade rap compact disc.
Gibson extended the timeline for the next step during a 90-minute meeting set up at the request of Andrew Franklin, the boy’s attorney. “We had a good two-way communication,” Gibson said. “We gained some time to work through the issues.”
Gibson and Franklin declined to talk about the specifics of the meeting, citing Singh’s privacy.
Singh was suspended for “gross disobedience or misconduct,” which would put Singh’s actions on par with a bomb threat, arson or bringing guns to school.
His 32-minute, 14-track CD includes references to illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts, Franklin said.
The rap about Cerutti suggests that if the principal doesn’t leave Brookfield, Singh will “(expletive) beat your ass down.” It also uses sexually explicit slurs to describe the principal.
Singh will return to class on Tuesday unless Gibson seeks expulsion.
Franklin called the lyrics “absolutely not a threat” and said there were better ways to deal with the issue than suspension or expulsion.
Franklin said Singh was enrolled in advanced placement courses and enjoyed music classes.
Cerutti did not return phone messages from the Associated Press on Friday.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
November 07, 2003
Teen's CD ranted against principal; he's suspended
From WCCO.com/Associated Press:
Teen's CD ranted against principal; he's suspended
(link to original)
Friday November 07, 2003
BROOKFIELD, Wis. (AP) A high school honor student who created a rap compact disc with rants about drugs and sex faces possible expulsion over a lyric that officials say threatened the principal.
Mark Cerutti, principal of Brookfield Central High School, said he first became aware of the CD Oct. 29 and suspended 15-year-old Sashwat Singh later that same day.
``Content is one part of the rationale for the action that's being taken,'' Cerutti said.
Administrators said the disc amounted to ``gross disobedience or misconduct,'' which would put it on a par with a bomb threat, arson or bringing guns to school.
As described in Friday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the 32-minute, 14-track CD includes rants referring to illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts, and it also denigrates classmates, his mother and the school.
The rap about Cerutti, who came to the school at the start of the school year after working in Madison schools and as a consultant, suggests if he doesn't leave Brookfield, Singh will ``beat your ass down.'' It also uses sexually explicit slurs to describe the principal.
Matt Gibson, superintendent of the Elmbrook School District, said the five-day suspension was appropriate, and a ruling on further sanctions would be made before Singh's return. School was not in session for three days since the suspension was ordered, so Singh is due back Tuesday.
Gibson said he was ``fact-finding to determine whether or not to move it toward expulsion.''
If administrators seek expulsion, Singh would be suspended for up to 10 more days and a hearing would be held.
Singh said the CD, recorded over the course of three months and made with home-computer equipment, included lyrics that were ``just random words that rhymed,'' and were not meant as a threat.
``I didn't think I had done anything wrong.''
His father, Dilip Singh, said he couldn't understand why his son was given the school's harshest penalty.
Other such offenses ``have to do with drugs and guns,'' Dilip Singh said. ``When you look at what he did and compare one to the other, it doesn't make sense.''
However, ``I don't approve of that kind of language,'' Dilip Singh said.
The suspension may mark the first time a Wisconsin high school student has been removed from school for a song he wrote, said Ken Cole, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
He said a threat couched in music ``isn't a matter of all in good sport or fun. If some incident occurs a month from now, someone will say, 'You knew back then.' We have to treat every incident very seriously.''
Sashwat Singh is a member of the school's band and choir and is enrolled in Advanced Placement and honors courses.
He sold two copies of the CD a month ago and gave three others away, with one finally reaching Cerutti.
Andrew Franklin, the teen's attorney, said the boy was simply ``expressing himself'' and the school has no right to discipline him.
``They're kind of like love songs and fantasies,'' he said. ``It's a long list of outrageous things that he throws out there. I think it's an attempt to make him look like a deviant or a threat.''
``Nothing about this is inherently more threatening than an Eminem CD,'' he said.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
November 06, 2003
School suspends teen for rap lyric
School suspends teen for rap lyric
(link to original)
(copy at DMUSIC w/comments posted)
Brookfield student says song not meant as threat
By REID J. EPSTEIN
repstein@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Nov. 6, 2003
Brookfield - A 15-year-old Brookfield Central High School student's homemade rhymes earned him a five-day suspension and could get the honor student expelled because of a lyric deemed threatening toward the principal - perhaps the first such case in Wisconsin.
Over the course of three months, Sashwat Singh wrote and recorded a 32-minute, 14-track rap compact disc featuring rants that made reference to illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts. He denigrates classmates, his mother and his high school. One track is a rap he used when campaigning to be class treasurer.
School administrators called the disc, which includes a song about the principal, Mark Cerutti, and conditions at the school, "gross disobedience or misconduct," an offense on par with making a bomb threat, bringing guns to school and arson.
But Singh's father, Dilip Singh, said he couldn't understand why his son was given the school's harshest penalty.
The other offenses "have to do with drugs and guns," Dilip Singh said. "When you look at what he did and compare one to the other, it doesn't make sense."
Sashwat Singh insisted the lyrics weren't meant as a threat, but "just random words that rhymed. I didn't think I had done anything wrong."
The vulgar lyrics suggest that if Cerutti doesn't get out of Brookfield, Singh will "beat your ass down." Singh, a Brookfield Central junior, also uses a slew of sexually explicit slurs to describe Cerutti.
"I don't approve of that kind of language," Dilip Singh said.
Cerutti said that he first became aware of Sashwat Singh's CD on Oct. 29, and that he was suspended later that day.
"Content is one part of the rationale for the action that's being taken," Cerutti said.
Matt Gibson, the Elmbrook School District superintendent, said he was "fact-finding to determine whether or not to move it toward expulsion." Gibson, who called the decision to issue Singh a five-day suspension "appropriate," said a ruling on further sanctions will come before Tuesday, when Singh is due back in school.
Case may be a first
Singh's suspension may mark the first time a high school student in Wisconsin has been removed from school for a song he'd written, said Ken Cole, the executive director of the Madison-based Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
Cole said a threat couched in music made outside school "isn't a matter of all in good sport or fun. If some incident occurs a month from now, someone will say, 'You knew back then.' We have to treat every incident very seriously."
A member of the school's band and choir who is enrolled in Advanced Placement and honors courses, Singh recorded and made the album with equipment on his home computer. Then, a month ago, he sold two copies to classmates and gave away three others. One of the copies landed in Cerutti's hands, and Oct. 29, the principal suspended Singh for five days. School has been dismissed on three days during that time, making Tuesday the first day Singh can return to school.
Dan Macallair, the executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, said the suspension is indicative of a national trend toward zero tolerance in schools.
"We're punishing kids for things that we adults never would have been punished for when we were that age," he said. "If we try to criminalize every comment that adolescents made, all our kids would be locked up."
Neither Macallair nor Cole was familiar with any other case of a student being disciplined for a song recorded outside school.
If Gibson moves to expel Singh, the boy would be suspended for up to 10 more days, and an expulsion hearing would be held then.
'Kind of like love songs'
Andrew Franklin, Singh's Milwaukee-based attorney, said the boy was simply "expressing himself" and the school has no right to discipline him, even if some people object to portions of the CD on moral grounds.
"They're kind of like love songs and fantasies," he said of the disc's content. "It's a long list of outrageous things that he throws out there. I think it's an attempt to make him look like a deviant or a threat."
Franklin said Singh's lyrics do not constitute a threat to Cerutti, with whom Singh had never spoken.
"Nothing about this is inherently more threatening than an Eminem CD," he said, referring to the rapper who has been criticized for defaming women and gays in his lyrics. "He was expressing a viewpoint about how he thought the school was operating as a police state."
Cerutti referred questions about the disc's lyrics to Gibson, who said Thursday that he had not yet listened to it.
After Singh's suspension, Brookfield police followed him home and confiscated his home computer. Police returned the computer Nov. 4.
Dilip Singh said he has yet to listen to the entire disc but did read the text of the lyrics.
Sashwat Singh said his parents "weren't as mad as I thought they would be."
In any case, Singh said he wasn't a fan of his principal, who came to Brookfield Central at the start of this school year after working in the Madison schools and as an education consultant.
From the Nov. 7, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
October 09, 2003
Bad behavior at rowdy rally bans two students from Homecoming
Bad behavior at rowdy rally bans two students from Homecoming
(link to original)
Oct 9 2003 12:00AM
Food fight, lewd poem lowlights of annual school assembly
By Susan Nord
Staff Writer
A pep rally held last Thursday at Brookfield Central High School spiraled into a contest of one-upsmanship that led to disciplinary action against two students.
"Not the best moment for Brookfield Central High School," Principal Mark Cerutti said.
He emphasized that the vast majority of students were well-behaved at the assembly.
The pep rally, in which various athletic teams are introduced and the Homecoming Court is presented, had pockets of bad behavior from the beginning. Several boys believed to be in the senior class, turned their backs as one of the school's administrators spoke at the pep assembly. Later, the same boys were seen teasing an underclassman from across the gym. The underclassman was eventually escorted out of the assembly.
Members of the boys volleyball team read a lewd poem that ended with the word "masturbate." Cerutti said he did not hear the entire poem, but walked in toward the end of the reading.
"Appropriate and comprehensive disciplinary action was taken," Cerutti said, referring to the disciplined students.
He would not reveal the two students who were disciplined, however, two members of the boys volleyball team were suspended from three matches for unspecified reasons.
The two boys were banned from further participation in Homecoming activities last weekend. Cerutti would not say if the boys were suspended from school.
Another incident that occurred during the nearly two-hour assembly included a pie-eating contest among the Homecoming Court that devolved into a food fight, resulting in whipped cream being spilled on the gym floor.
"We are responding to specific incidents, and the leadership team will be examining the week of Homecoming activities," Cerutti, who is in his first year as principal at Central, said.
Students said that the assembly was not out of the ordinary and that it could be a case of students reacting to Cerutti's tougher style.
"Because Cerutti has been more strict than usual with the Homecoming events. People were a little more resistant to what he was doing, like the seniors standing up and turning around, that's not (what normally goes on)," junior Michelle Hoelker said.
Junior Amanda Hansen said that the boys who were disciplined should have only received detention.
"They were just words to me," Hansen said.
She said that the lewd poem was more of a joke than anything.
Junior Megan Hourihan agreed.
"I thought it was hilarious, but it could have been in a different place," Hourihan said.
Senior Tim Urbashich said the assembly was just a littler crazier than the ones he has attended in previous years.
"We always pull stuff at assemblies," Urbashich said. "We didn't get out of line with it."
Before the Homecoming assembly misbehavior, Cerutti said the faculty and student leadership were planning to meet and will discuss all assemblies, who is involved and what the assemblies are meant to achieve.
©Brookfield News 2003
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
Student may be expelled for rap
Posted Nov. 08, 2003
Student may be expelled for rap
(link to original)
CD contained threatening lyrics against principal
The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — A school superintendent Friday delayed deciding whether to hold an expulsion hearing for an honors student for making a rap CD with a lyric that officials say threatened the principal.
Matt Gibson, Elmbrook School District superintendent, said he extended Friday’s deadline to Tuesday morning to gather more information about the case of 15-year-old Sashwat Singh.
Mark Cerutti, Brookfield Central High School principal, suspended Singh Oct. 29 for a lyric on Singh’s homemade rap compact disc.
Gibson extended the timeline for the next step during a 90-minute meeting set up at the request of Andrew Franklin, the boy’s attorney. “We had a good two-way communication,” Gibson said. “We gained some time to work through the issues.”
Gibson and Franklin declined to talk about the specifics of the meeting, citing Singh’s privacy.
Singh was suspended for “gross disobedience or misconduct,” which would put Singh’s actions on par with a bomb threat, arson or bringing guns to school.
His 32-minute, 14-track CD includes references to illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts, Franklin said.
The rap about Cerutti suggests that if the principal doesn’t leave Brookfield, Singh will “(expletive) beat your ass down.” It also uses sexually explicit slurs to describe the principal.
Singh will return to class on Tuesday unless Gibson seeks expulsion.
Franklin called the lyrics “absolutely not a threat” and said there were better ways to deal with the issue than suspension or expulsion.
Franklin said Singh was enrolled in advanced placement courses and enjoyed music classes.
Cerutti did not return phone messages from the Associated Press on Friday.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
Teen's CD ranted against principal; he's suspended
From WCCO.com/Associated Press:
Teen's CD ranted against principal; he's suspended
(link to original)
Friday November 07, 2003
BROOKFIELD, Wis. (AP) A high school honor student who created a rap compact disc with rants about drugs and sex faces possible expulsion over a lyric that officials say threatened the principal.
Mark Cerutti, principal of Brookfield Central High School, said he first became aware of the CD Oct. 29 and suspended 15-year-old Sashwat Singh later that same day.
``Content is one part of the rationale for the action that's being taken,'' Cerutti said.
Administrators said the disc amounted to ``gross disobedience or misconduct,'' which would put it on a par with a bomb threat, arson or bringing guns to school.
As described in Friday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the 32-minute, 14-track CD includes rants referring to illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts, and it also denigrates classmates, his mother and the school.
The rap about Cerutti, who came to the school at the start of the school year after working in Madison schools and as a consultant, suggests if he doesn't leave Brookfield, Singh will ``beat your ass down.'' It also uses sexually explicit slurs to describe the principal.
Matt Gibson, superintendent of the Elmbrook School District, said the five-day suspension was appropriate, and a ruling on further sanctions would be made before Singh's return. School was not in session for three days since the suspension was ordered, so Singh is due back Tuesday.
Gibson said he was ``fact-finding to determine whether or not to move it toward expulsion.''
If administrators seek expulsion, Singh would be suspended for up to 10 more days and a hearing would be held.
Singh said the CD, recorded over the course of three months and made with home-computer equipment, included lyrics that were ``just random words that rhymed,'' and were not meant as a threat.
``I didn't think I had done anything wrong.''
His father, Dilip Singh, said he couldn't understand why his son was given the school's harshest penalty.
Other such offenses ``have to do with drugs and guns,'' Dilip Singh said. ``When you look at what he did and compare one to the other, it doesn't make sense.''
However, ``I don't approve of that kind of language,'' Dilip Singh said.
The suspension may mark the first time a Wisconsin high school student has been removed from school for a song he wrote, said Ken Cole, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
He said a threat couched in music ``isn't a matter of all in good sport or fun. If some incident occurs a month from now, someone will say, 'You knew back then.' We have to treat every incident very seriously.''
Sashwat Singh is a member of the school's band and choir and is enrolled in Advanced Placement and honors courses.
He sold two copies of the CD a month ago and gave three others away, with one finally reaching Cerutti.
Andrew Franklin, the teen's attorney, said the boy was simply ``expressing himself'' and the school has no right to discipline him.
``They're kind of like love songs and fantasies,'' he said. ``It's a long list of outrageous things that he throws out there. I think it's an attempt to make him look like a deviant or a threat.''
``Nothing about this is inherently more threatening than an Eminem CD,'' he said.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
November 06, 2003
School suspends teen for rap lyric
School suspends teen for rap lyric
(link to original)
(copy at DMUSIC w/comments posted)
Brookfield student says song not meant as threat
By REID J. EPSTEIN
repstein@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Nov. 6, 2003
Brookfield - A 15-year-old Brookfield Central High School student's homemade rhymes earned him a five-day suspension and could get the honor student expelled because of a lyric deemed threatening toward the principal - perhaps the first such case in Wisconsin.
Over the course of three months, Sashwat Singh wrote and recorded a 32-minute, 14-track rap compact disc featuring rants that made reference to illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts. He denigrates classmates, his mother and his high school. One track is a rap he used when campaigning to be class treasurer.
School administrators called the disc, which includes a song about the principal, Mark Cerutti, and conditions at the school, "gross disobedience or misconduct," an offense on par with making a bomb threat, bringing guns to school and arson.
But Singh's father, Dilip Singh, said he couldn't understand why his son was given the school's harshest penalty.
The other offenses "have to do with drugs and guns," Dilip Singh said. "When you look at what he did and compare one to the other, it doesn't make sense."
Sashwat Singh insisted the lyrics weren't meant as a threat, but "just random words that rhymed. I didn't think I had done anything wrong."
The vulgar lyrics suggest that if Cerutti doesn't get out of Brookfield, Singh will "beat your ass down." Singh, a Brookfield Central junior, also uses a slew of sexually explicit slurs to describe Cerutti.
"I don't approve of that kind of language," Dilip Singh said.
Cerutti said that he first became aware of Sashwat Singh's CD on Oct. 29, and that he was suspended later that day.
"Content is one part of the rationale for the action that's being taken," Cerutti said.
Matt Gibson, the Elmbrook School District superintendent, said he was "fact-finding to determine whether or not to move it toward expulsion." Gibson, who called the decision to issue Singh a five-day suspension "appropriate," said a ruling on further sanctions will come before Tuesday, when Singh is due back in school.
Case may be a first
Singh's suspension may mark the first time a high school student in Wisconsin has been removed from school for a song he'd written, said Ken Cole, the executive director of the Madison-based Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
Cole said a threat couched in music made outside school "isn't a matter of all in good sport or fun. If some incident occurs a month from now, someone will say, 'You knew back then.' We have to treat every incident very seriously."
A member of the school's band and choir who is enrolled in Advanced Placement and honors courses, Singh recorded and made the album with equipment on his home computer. Then, a month ago, he sold two copies to classmates and gave away three others. One of the copies landed in Cerutti's hands, and Oct. 29, the principal suspended Singh for five days. School has been dismissed on three days during that time, making Tuesday the first day Singh can return to school.
Dan Macallair, the executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, said the suspension is indicative of a national trend toward zero tolerance in schools.
"We're punishing kids for things that we adults never would have been punished for when we were that age," he said. "If we try to criminalize every comment that adolescents made, all our kids would be locked up."
Neither Macallair nor Cole was familiar with any other case of a student being disciplined for a song recorded outside school.
If Gibson moves to expel Singh, the boy would be suspended for up to 10 more days, and an expulsion hearing would be held then.
'Kind of like love songs'
Andrew Franklin, Singh's Milwaukee-based attorney, said the boy was simply "expressing himself" and the school has no right to discipline him, even if some people object to portions of the CD on moral grounds.
"They're kind of like love songs and fantasies," he said of the disc's content. "It's a long list of outrageous things that he throws out there. I think it's an attempt to make him look like a deviant or a threat."
Franklin said Singh's lyrics do not constitute a threat to Cerutti, with whom Singh had never spoken.
"Nothing about this is inherently more threatening than an Eminem CD," he said, referring to the rapper who has been criticized for defaming women and gays in his lyrics. "He was expressing a viewpoint about how he thought the school was operating as a police state."
Cerutti referred questions about the disc's lyrics to Gibson, who said Thursday that he had not yet listened to it.
After Singh's suspension, Brookfield police followed him home and confiscated his home computer. Police returned the computer Nov. 4.
Dilip Singh said he has yet to listen to the entire disc but did read the text of the lyrics.
Sashwat Singh said his parents "weren't as mad as I thought they would be."
In any case, Singh said he wasn't a fan of his principal, who came to Brookfield Central at the start of this school year after working in the Madison schools and as an education consultant.
From the Nov. 7, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
October 09, 2003
Bad behavior at rowdy rally bans two students from Homecoming
Bad behavior at rowdy rally bans two students from Homecoming
(link to original)
Oct 9 2003 12:00AM
Food fight, lewd poem lowlights of annual school assembly
By Susan Nord
Staff Writer
A pep rally held last Thursday at Brookfield Central High School spiraled into a contest of one-upsmanship that led to disciplinary action against two students.
"Not the best moment for Brookfield Central High School," Principal Mark Cerutti said.
He emphasized that the vast majority of students were well-behaved at the assembly.
The pep rally, in which various athletic teams are introduced and the Homecoming Court is presented, had pockets of bad behavior from the beginning. Several boys believed to be in the senior class, turned their backs as one of the school's administrators spoke at the pep assembly. Later, the same boys were seen teasing an underclassman from across the gym. The underclassman was eventually escorted out of the assembly.
Members of the boys volleyball team read a lewd poem that ended with the word "masturbate." Cerutti said he did not hear the entire poem, but walked in toward the end of the reading.
"Appropriate and comprehensive disciplinary action was taken," Cerutti said, referring to the disciplined students.
He would not reveal the two students who were disciplined, however, two members of the boys volleyball team were suspended from three matches for unspecified reasons.
The two boys were banned from further participation in Homecoming activities last weekend. Cerutti would not say if the boys were suspended from school.
Another incident that occurred during the nearly two-hour assembly included a pie-eating contest among the Homecoming Court that devolved into a food fight, resulting in whipped cream being spilled on the gym floor.
"We are responding to specific incidents, and the leadership team will be examining the week of Homecoming activities," Cerutti, who is in his first year as principal at Central, said.
Students said that the assembly was not out of the ordinary and that it could be a case of students reacting to Cerutti's tougher style.
"Because Cerutti has been more strict than usual with the Homecoming events. People were a little more resistant to what he was doing, like the seniors standing up and turning around, that's not (what normally goes on)," junior Michelle Hoelker said.
Junior Amanda Hansen said that the boys who were disciplined should have only received detention.
"They were just words to me," Hansen said.
She said that the lewd poem was more of a joke than anything.
Junior Megan Hourihan agreed.
"I thought it was hilarious, but it could have been in a different place," Hourihan said.
Senior Tim Urbashich said the assembly was just a littler crazier than the ones he has attended in previous years.
"We always pull stuff at assemblies," Urbashich said. "We didn't get out of line with it."
Before the Homecoming assembly misbehavior, Cerutti said the faculty and student leadership were planning to meet and will discuss all assemblies, who is involved and what the assemblies are meant to achieve.
©Brookfield News 2003
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
School suspends teen for rap lyric
School suspends teen for rap lyric
(link to original)
(copy at DMUSIC w/comments posted)
Brookfield student says song not meant as threat
By REID J. EPSTEIN
repstein@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Nov. 6, 2003
Brookfield - A 15-year-old Brookfield Central High School student's homemade rhymes earned him a five-day suspension and could get the honor student expelled because of a lyric deemed threatening toward the principal - perhaps the first such case in Wisconsin.
Over the course of three months, Sashwat Singh wrote and recorded a 32-minute, 14-track rap compact disc featuring rants that made reference to illegal drug use and explicit sexual acts. He denigrates classmates, his mother and his high school. One track is a rap he used when campaigning to be class treasurer.
School administrators called the disc, which includes a song about the principal, Mark Cerutti, and conditions at the school, "gross disobedience or misconduct," an offense on par with making a bomb threat, bringing guns to school and arson.
But Singh's father, Dilip Singh, said he couldn't understand why his son was given the school's harshest penalty.
The other offenses "have to do with drugs and guns," Dilip Singh said. "When you look at what he did and compare one to the other, it doesn't make sense."
Sashwat Singh insisted the lyrics weren't meant as a threat, but "just random words that rhymed. I didn't think I had done anything wrong."
The vulgar lyrics suggest that if Cerutti doesn't get out of Brookfield, Singh will "beat your ass down." Singh, a Brookfield Central junior, also uses a slew of sexually explicit slurs to describe Cerutti.
"I don't approve of that kind of language," Dilip Singh said.
Cerutti said that he first became aware of Sashwat Singh's CD on Oct. 29, and that he was suspended later that day.
"Content is one part of the rationale for the action that's being taken," Cerutti said.
Matt Gibson, the Elmbrook School District superintendent, said he was "fact-finding to determine whether or not to move it toward expulsion." Gibson, who called the decision to issue Singh a five-day suspension "appropriate," said a ruling on further sanctions will come before Tuesday, when Singh is due back in school.
Case may be a first
Singh's suspension may mark the first time a high school student in Wisconsin has been removed from school for a song he'd written, said Ken Cole, the executive director of the Madison-based Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
Cole said a threat couched in music made outside school "isn't a matter of all in good sport or fun. If some incident occurs a month from now, someone will say, 'You knew back then.' We have to treat every incident very seriously."
A member of the school's band and choir who is enrolled in Advanced Placement and honors courses, Singh recorded and made the album with equipment on his home computer. Then, a month ago, he sold two copies to classmates and gave away three others. One of the copies landed in Cerutti's hands, and Oct. 29, the principal suspended Singh for five days. School has been dismissed on three days during that time, making Tuesday the first day Singh can return to school.
Dan Macallair, the executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, said the suspension is indicative of a national trend toward zero tolerance in schools.
"We're punishing kids for things that we adults never would have been punished for when we were that age," he said. "If we try to criminalize every comment that adolescents made, all our kids would be locked up."
Neither Macallair nor Cole was familiar with any other case of a student being disciplined for a song recorded outside school.
If Gibson moves to expel Singh, the boy would be suspended for up to 10 more days, and an expulsion hearing would be held then.
'Kind of like love songs'
Andrew Franklin, Singh's Milwaukee-based attorney, said the boy was simply "expressing himself" and the school has no right to discipline him, even if some people object to portions of the CD on moral grounds.
"They're kind of like love songs and fantasies," he said of the disc's content. "It's a long list of outrageous things that he throws out there. I think it's an attempt to make him look like a deviant or a threat."
Franklin said Singh's lyrics do not constitute a threat to Cerutti, with whom Singh had never spoken.
"Nothing about this is inherently more threatening than an Eminem CD," he said, referring to the rapper who has been criticized for defaming women and gays in his lyrics. "He was expressing a viewpoint about how he thought the school was operating as a police state."
Cerutti referred questions about the disc's lyrics to Gibson, who said Thursday that he had not yet listened to it.
After Singh's suspension, Brookfield police followed him home and confiscated his home computer. Police returned the computer Nov. 4.
Dilip Singh said he has yet to listen to the entire disc but did read the text of the lyrics.
Sashwat Singh said his parents "weren't as mad as I thought they would be."
In any case, Singh said he wasn't a fan of his principal, who came to Brookfield Central at the start of this school year after working in the Madison schools and as an education consultant.
From the Nov. 7, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
Bad behavior at rowdy rally bans two students from Homecoming
Bad behavior at rowdy rally bans two students from Homecoming
(link to original)
Oct 9 2003 12:00AM
Food fight, lewd poem lowlights of annual school assembly
By Susan Nord
Staff Writer
A pep rally held last Thursday at Brookfield Central High School spiraled into a contest of one-upsmanship that led to disciplinary action against two students.
"Not the best moment for Brookfield Central High School," Principal Mark Cerutti said.
He emphasized that the vast majority of students were well-behaved at the assembly.
The pep rally, in which various athletic teams are introduced and the Homecoming Court is presented, had pockets of bad behavior from the beginning. Several boys believed to be in the senior class, turned their backs as one of the school's administrators spoke at the pep assembly. Later, the same boys were seen teasing an underclassman from across the gym. The underclassman was eventually escorted out of the assembly.
Members of the boys volleyball team read a lewd poem that ended with the word "masturbate." Cerutti said he did not hear the entire poem, but walked in toward the end of the reading.
"Appropriate and comprehensive disciplinary action was taken," Cerutti said, referring to the disciplined students.
He would not reveal the two students who were disciplined, however, two members of the boys volleyball team were suspended from three matches for unspecified reasons.
The two boys were banned from further participation in Homecoming activities last weekend. Cerutti would not say if the boys were suspended from school.
Another incident that occurred during the nearly two-hour assembly included a pie-eating contest among the Homecoming Court that devolved into a food fight, resulting in whipped cream being spilled on the gym floor.
"We are responding to specific incidents, and the leadership team will be examining the week of Homecoming activities," Cerutti, who is in his first year as principal at Central, said.
Students said that the assembly was not out of the ordinary and that it could be a case of students reacting to Cerutti's tougher style.
"Because Cerutti has been more strict than usual with the Homecoming events. People were a little more resistant to what he was doing, like the seniors standing up and turning around, that's not (what normally goes on)," junior Michelle Hoelker said.
Junior Amanda Hansen said that the boys who were disciplined should have only received detention.
"They were just words to me," Hansen said.
She said that the lewd poem was more of a joke than anything.
Junior Megan Hourihan agreed.
"I thought it was hilarious, but it could have been in a different place," Hourihan said.
Senior Tim Urbashich said the assembly was just a littler crazier than the ones he has attended in previous years.
"We always pull stuff at assemblies," Urbashich said. "We didn't get out of line with it."
Before the Homecoming assembly misbehavior, Cerutti said the faculty and student leadership were planning to meet and will discuss all assemblies, who is involved and what the assemblies are meant to achieve.
©Brookfield News 2003
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
