MUSKEGON, MI - 14,918 days, or, if you prefer, 104,846 hours.

That's the amount of class time that students in Muskegon County public schools missed in 2013-14 because they had been suspended for misbehavior.

Add in expulsions - those longer term separations that typically are for 180 days - and the amount of time out of class soars to around 25,000 days.

A month-long investigation by MLive and the Muskegon Chronicle into school discipline reveals the extent and type of misbehavior among students that teachers and principals must address on a daily basis. Details of each suspension handed out in the 2013-14 school year were obtained from public school districts through the Freedom of Information Act. Details of expulsions for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years also were gathered.

The information is both illuminating and disheartening:

There were 6,065 suspensions in the 2013-14 school year alone.

Kindergartners were suspended for fighting, vandalism, theft, disrespect and other inappropriate behaviors.

Bullying was a factor in more than 200 suspensions.

The number of expulsions dropped from 76 in 2012-13 to 52 in 2013-14.

The youngest student to be expelled was a 7-year-old second-grader, for taking a weapon to school.

Disrespect, insubordination and disturbances are the most common issues teachers face in the classroom. But there also are myriad other issues: constant cell phone texting, physical threats, fights, weapons, drugs, sexual harassment.

Essentially, all the problems of society walk school hallways each day.

To address them, educators find themselves in a daily balancing act. They must support all children: those as young as 5 whose misbehavior is rooted in families and communities that know no discipline, as well as those who show up to school eager to learn.

Increasingly, educators are looking for options other than kicking students out of school. When they're not in school, these students who tend to be at risk in the first place, get behind on school work. Their grades slip, they don't assimilate with the learning environment and their completion of high school is in jeopardy.

That can make them a burden to society and even turn them onto a life of crime. And that is what affects us all.

Suspension rates vary

"It's staggering the amount of kids we have out of school," said Muskegon school board President Louis Churchwell. "It's frightening."

They are kids who often are left to roam the streets, following what has popularly been labeled a "pipeline to prison." Being tossed out of school can cut them off from the very people who provide the discipline and structure that is missing at home.

Students have been suspended for writing a cuss word on their art work, for kissing another student and throwing a snowball. They also are suspended for repeated tardies and for skipping class.

"There are kids that figure out how to get suspended," Churchwell said. "They do it deliberately. They do it on purpose."

Data provided by local public school districts.

Suspension rates are a reflection of the level of dysfunction in communities students grow up in, as well as districts' approaches to discipline. Three Oaks Public School Academy in the city of Muskegon suspended students in 2013-14 at a rate of 1,086 suspensions per 1,000 students - the highest rate in Muskegon County according to data provided by the schools.

That compares to Fruitport, North Muskegon and Mona Shores, where suspension rates are less than 60 per 1,000 students. Other suspension rates per 1,000 students were 504 in Muskegon Heights, 422 in Muskegon, 360 in Oakridge and 281 in Orchard View.

Some would say the children who are kicked out of class are the ones who need to be there the most. But other than removing the problem child, how does a school protect the rights of the majority of well-behaved students to a safe, healthy and productive learning environment?

It's a question that a collaboration of juvenile justice, school and social agency representatives are working to answer with a team-approach program called STAY, one of just 16 in the nation sponsored by a national juvenile justice association.

It's also a dilemma that individual schools continue to work to address with "responsible thinking" programs for their student bodies, in-school suspension programs, rewards for good behavior that include car giveaways, as well as "it takes a village" type interventions. The Muskegon Area Intermediate School District is using a $2 million grant to train school staff on various responses to behavior with the ultimate goal of reducing suspensions.

But finding a meaningful alternative to suspension hasn't been easy.

"We are far from being in a position where we have a significant number of alternatives to suspension," said Holton Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kennedy.

'Shocking' behavior

The violence was like none that local resident Gary Markowski had ever witnessed in his 60 years. Driving past a Muskegon area elementary school, he stopped right in the middle of the street when he saw a school yard assault unfold before him.

It was Tuesday, March 18, 2014, right around noon. He remembers the day like it was yesterday.

"I did not see this as a fight since one student was violently beating, kicking, kneeing punches on another student, and the student beat to the ground did not look like he was he able to fight back or was not fighting back," Markowski said. "I have never witnessed the violent pounding that the student on the ground was enduring."

Children came running to watch, he said. Eventually, an adult came out of the school and pulled the assaultive boy off of the other. Alarmed, Markowski called 911 and later the district superintendent's office.

"I cannot believe that this level of violence is even going on at an elementary school," he said.

According to suspension and expulsion data, 2,163 suspensions in 2013-14 were due to some sort of physical aggression. That amounts to roughly 12 suspensions a day. Twenty-five expulsions were for assault in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

Studies have shown that the incidents of misbehavior aren't increasing, but their severity is, said John Carlson, a professor in Michigan State University's College of Education who also is a licensed psychologist and expert in school behavior and discipline.

"The behavior some of these kids are showing is kind of shocking, " Carlson said.

A 'bad day'

Felipe Avila was a good student. He got mostly As and Bs. He has a mom that is dedicated and involved. And one day at Muskegon High School, he had what he calls a "bad day."

He and a girl were fussing with each other. She ended up throwing paper wads, he flipped her off and the two ended grappling with each other. It lasted, in Felipe's estimation, about "three seconds" before other students pulled them apart.

And for that, he was suspended and missed a month of school in his freshman year.

"Being suspended for a month, it really sets you back a lot," he said. "When I came back, my grades were in the pits. I barely passed one of my classes, and the rest were Cs and Ds."

He missed being in school. "I like learning," he said.

His mother, Faith Groesbeck, wishes the conflict could have been handled in a different way.

"I felt if the parents could have handled it, we could have done a much better job," Groesbeck said. "I felt we should have made them spend the afternoon together."

Groesbeck said she met with the girl's parents. She said she was glad to do so, and neither family hangs onto any animosity.

"I'd like to see things handled in my school the same way I want to see them handled in the community," she said. "I would like to see people working out their problems."

Finding a balance

These two incidents of physical aggression help illustrate the dilemmas that school districts face.

Experts like Carlson say it's important for schools to have clearly written policies so that students know the consequences of their choices. At the same time, "things aren't black and white," Carlson said. A school yard pounding is different from a short-lived shoving match.

"It's really hard to find balance - to have really clear expectations and have some room for flexibility," Carlson said.

Developing an appropriate response could be, as Groesbeck proposed, involving parents. And it doesn't necessarily mean getting rid of suspensions that are valuable in getting parents' attention that their children's behavior needs to be addressed. After all, it's up to the parents to secure supervision for students who are kicked out of school. Many schools require a meeting with parents before allowing a student back in.

But what about the students whose parents can't find proper supervision while they work outside the home? What about the parents who simply don't care if their kids are wandering the streets?

"That's really the challenging situation," Carlson said. "You need to identify those families and home lives that aren't functional enough to design an appropriate response to the behavior."

That requires individualized attention that schools have trouble meeting with limited staff. That's why programs, like STAY are turning to help from existing agencies: mental health, health and human services, mediation services and more.

Schools often suspend students more than once. In six districts that were able to provide the information, 826 students were suspended 2,290 times - or nearly three times each. Those included a student expelled 13 times for a total of 21 days, one expelled 10 times for a total of 30 days, and one suspended 9 times for a total of 20 days. It's not uncommon to see students expelled six or seven times.

"We need to consider what's happened to those kids, rather than what's wrong with those kids," Carlson said

Dealing with dysfunction

What's happened is many children grown up with dysfunction. It's engrained, it's generational and it's very hard to change.

As Muskegon High School Principal Brad Perkins puts it, many are surviving in the chaos that adults have created for them. Those students live in a world where they essentially are raising themselves, with no curfew, no bed time - no rules.

"They don't expect adults to tell them what to do," said Churchwell, Muskegon's school board president. "What do you think happens when a teacher comes to them and tells them to zip it or to get some work done? You have some kids that are raised in a manner that what's normal to them is to talk back to adults."

In 2013-14, there were at least 795 suspensions from Muskegon County schools for defiance. There were another 337 for disrespect and 510 for disruptions.

For school staff, especially teachers, each incident, is a "little form of a traumatic event," said Carlson, the MSU professor.

Muskegon schools are trying to help teachers build better relationships with students, but it can be difficult, especially for those who "hit burnout stage" and for whom adapting to new programs is tough, said Rodney Walker, the district's director of pupil services. "It's very difficult to be the social worker in the classroom, to be the parent in the classroom, to be the everything in the classroom - and you've got 28 kids in the classroom," Walker said.

But there are programs that are showing promise. They revolve around individualized attention and lots and lots of positive reinforcement. They involve a belief in the basic goodness of each student. They give second chances and sometimes even third and fourth chances.

Educators do their best to brainstorm ways to address behavior issues. Consultants are brought in, behavior plans are devised, intervention after intervention is tried. Nothing, Walker said, "is an overnight magical fix."

"It's ongoing," Walker said. "Every day, it's ongoing."

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Lynn Moore covers education for MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email her at lmoore8@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.