Is suspension from school a good punishment?

TL;DR: Yeah, when they are used indiscriminately, impulsively or inconsistently, suspensions can be ineffective or even harmful to the student being suspended. read more

It seems that schools aren't shying away from using suspensions as a form of punishment. A recently released reported examined the use of suspensions in Texas public schools for students in seventh to 12th grade and found that, of close to one million students, about six of every ten had been suspended or expelled once if not multiple times while in those grades. read more

Teachers and school administrators have limited options for dealing with these problems. In general, punishment is a relatively ineffective way of modifying behavior. Anonymous i s spot on in saying that suspensions are pointless and probably counterproductive for single-incident behavior issues, unless the incidents are severe. read more