By Nick Diamantides
Staff Writer
Last week, the Signal Tribune asked the three candidates for the District 4 seat on the Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education about their views on the on-campus suspension (OCS) policy in Long Beach high schools. The question had sprung from reports the newspaper received about Wilson High School’s OCS practices. According to several parents, Wilson students who violated school rules were made to stand staring straight ahead in silence for 90 minutes during a time they would otherwise be attending class.
Signal Tribune publisher Neena Strichart spoke to Wilson High School co-principal Lewis Kerns last week to inquire about the policy. He assured her that the violating students were no longer required to stand in silence and in fact had never done so in the two years he had been at Wilson.
However, early this week, three parents insisted that the policy is still in effect. “My daughter was put on OCS just before spring break,” said Linda Moreno, one of the parents. “She had to remain standing without talking for one entire class period before they allowed her to go to her next class.” Moreno added that her daughter could do nothing but stare straight ahead during most of the suspension period, but was allowed to sit during the last five minutes.
“She missed out on a lot of work,” Moreno said. “I think it’s really wrong. They shouldn’t be doing that to kids because that takes away from their education.” She noted that her daughter was put on OCS for being tardy. The school, she added, does not notify parents of their children being put on OCS unless the kids are punished that way four times in a school year. Moreno admitted that she has not spoken to the principal or the teachers about OCS, but she is hoping to do so with a group of parents who also object to OCS.
According to Marie Stoltz, who is an advertising consultant for the Signal Tribune, the policy has been in effect for many years. “My daughter was made to stand staring straight ahead for about 90 minutes two years ago at Wilson High School,” Stoltz said. “They punished her in that way because the color of her school uniform had faded and on one day they did that to her twice.”
Stoltz explained that her daughter Becky was assigned to OCS because her khaki uniform had faded. Later that day, Stoltz drove to the school campus with a change of clothes for Becky, but school officials gave her OCS again because the second uniform had faded colors as well. “My biggest issue with OCS is that the kids should be given something to do that will advance their education–do homework or read a book–instead of just wasting 90 minutes,” she said. “My second issue is that if the school is going to be so picky about fading colors, they should at least sell uniforms at the school that parents can easily afford.”
Stoltz became so angry with Wilson school officials over the policy that she pulled Becky out of the school and put her into the Educational Partnership for High Schools program (EPHS), which allows students to earn their high school diploma through independent studies. “She’s doing very well with that, and will graduate this July,” Stoltz said.
Becky Stoltz described her OCS experience at Wilson High. “It really felt like a waste of time to me,” she said. “Not only was I missing a class, but we were not even allowed to finish other school work. It was not productive at all.”
Informed that Moreno and several parents were claiming that the OCS standing in silence policy was still in effect, Kerns expressed surprise, insisting that the school had put an end to it about ten years ago. “Campus security officers are the ones who work in OCS,” he said. “If this is true, I am definitely going to put a stop to it.” Kerns added that he hopes the parents who spoke with the Signal Tribune will contact him to express their concerns.
