Why Monrovia Students Got Suspended in the 2011-12 School Year

When we published our county-wide map on suspension rates by school district, which showed Monrovia Unified with one of the highest rates of suspension in the county, some readers wanted more details on why students were suspended.

The figures from the California Department of Education report show that 610 students were suspended at least once in Monrovia in the 2011-12 school year.  As some students were suspended more than once, the total number of suspensions was 1,332.

One major distinction for Monrovia Unified compared to the county and state as a whole was that the majority of those suspensions were in school, meaning that rather than having the student sent home for a full school day, the student was removed from classes but kept in school for the day.  

In total, 876 of the 1,332 suspension, or 65.8 percent were in-school.

That differs greatly with L.A. County as a whole, where more students were sent home to serve their suspension penalty - only 19.3 percent of suspensions across the county were in school.  Across the state, the figure was 24 percent.

An interesting discussion on the merits and drawbacks of in-school suspension can be found in this NPR story.  This Education.com piece has some ideas on alternatives to out-of-school suspension.

As for the cause of the suspension, the overwhelming majority, as with elsewhere in the state were for "defiance," a category used when the most serious offense committed by the student is disobeying a teacher.  

As shown in the above graphic, there were 974 defiance suspension in Monrovia unified in 2011-12.  The other causes for suspension were:

• 238 suspensions for a violent incident that did not result in injury
• 54 for violent incidents resulting in injury
• 30 drug-related suspensions
• 10 weapons-related suspensions
• 26 violations of other rules in the state's education code