Three years ago, I published an essay defending superintendent suspensions inside the New York City school system. It was a precarious position, a pedagogue arguing in favor of suspending kids from school, and I’m about to do it again.

No, I’m not some old-school drill sergeant who needs to retire. My classroom management skills have always been dubious. I rule in favor of compassion every single time, and it often comes back to haunt me. Early on, I made the embarrassing mistake of trying to be the cool teacher on staff. It didn’t work. One joke led to another and students got confused, thinking it was open mic night rather than freshman English. It took years to find the right symmetry. In teaching, balance is everything.

This brings us to school discipline. The scales have been tipped so fiercely in the name of progress that no one’s sure what the word means anymore. All many teachers see is chaos, as the very few students who don’t care for authority invariably set the tone for others. The balance is off. The mayor who doctored these scales is gone, yet principals are still following his marching orders.

Students gather for a rally calling on the passage of the Solutions Not Suspensions Act at Tweed Courthouse on February 23, 2022 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Forget him. Let Bill de Blasio rattle his chains inside some Brooklyn hotel so we can focus on decency, respect and common sense.

Pre-COVID, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza slashed school suspensions and walked out on parents who demanded to know why their child’s attacker faced little consequences. He claimed he was cleaning institutional rot, correcting a racist system designed to punish one kind of kid. He often used a catchphrase to simplify complexity with many layers: the school-to-prison pipeline. If you asked questions, you were part of the problem.

I offered a unique perspective in that I had been teaching at an Alternate Learning Center, commonly referred to as a suspension school. I wrote that ALCs were not the wastelands they were portrayed as in the media. The only teen in New York City who got expelled every year was Holden Caulfield. Students who received superintendent suspensions were safe, educated and cared for until their issues were resolved. After a period of reflection, they returned to their home schools a bit wiser. I also explained that leadership was diverse. Many of the administrators throughout my career have been strong women of color. The notion that these women were complicit in some kind of racial witch hunt was just absurd.

It did no good. In the name of equity, suspension sites shrank dramatically. To save their jobs, principals buried incidents inside their schools to satisfy their bosses.

Most are unaware that crimes committed off-campus result in school suspensions. How can an institution be blamed for failing its students when a gang fight took place inside a McDonald’s over a social media post? When this occurs, the kids involved are sent to various ALCs within their borough to keep them apart. Because there are so few ALCs left, Queens high schools alone have dropped by half. Students from the same incident are sometimes sitting in the same class: “You got me suspended.” “No, you got me suspended!” A brand-new kind of madness created by terrible policy.

Students are savvy. They know an institution with no rules when they see it. A student recently told me he’d catch me outside the building after school. He didn’t raise his voice or swear; he threatened me as casually as one might order a slice of pizza. Through dumb luck, I exited the building a different way, only to receive a call from a colleague: “He’s outside waiting for you.”

Had I used my normal route and this boy wanted to talk rather than fight, all would’ve been forgiven. There are no hard feelings in teaching, but he was there to do harm. His principal asked us to drop it, but we refused. There’s a joke wily vets often tell: A teacher has as much power as the cafeteria lady, which would be hilarious if it weren’t so true.

So, what to do? As it turns out, our new mayor ran on a platform of common sense, decency, and law and order, exactly what our school system lacks. I understand what it’s like to be a Democrat with no party. Since his efforts to make our streets safer have led him into brick walls, why not switch gears and focus on the schools — and not just safety, but discipline in classes and hallways? There would be no state legislator or district attorney to stand in his way. In fact, he could get started before the next morning bell.

Mayor Adams’ next order of business should be informing principals that they may govern efficiently without fear of retaliation. Teachers suffering from eight years of virtue signaling will thank him for it.

McGeever teaches at the ALC at August Martin High School and is the author of “Small Rooms and Others,” a collection of essays regarding the school system.

Copyright © 2021, New York Daily News

Copyright © 2021, New York Daily News