A first-grader at Landis Elementary was suspended for more than a month for repeatedly climbing on other students’ desks, talking out of turn and otherwise disrupting class.

His parents approached the school board in tears. “How is he ever going to learn anything, when instead of dealing with the problem, you send him home?” mother Theresa Cephus asked.

Last fall, the child was placed in an exceptional program. He had about five classmates rather than the typical 25 — with a teacher and an assistant.

He hasn’t been suspended since.

In Rowan County and throughout the country, a debate is brewing over when schools should send children home. Many are concerned that when children are sent home with no one to watch them, they risk more than falling behind in school. They’re also more likely to become pregnant, to be exposed to drugs or to get in trouble with the law, critics of out-of-school suspension say.

“Some of these children, we’re just going to have to deal with,” said Dr. Ada Fisher, a retired doctor on the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education.

“... They will have been labeled and identified ... I think we need to really look at why we put these kids out of school.”

Comparing out-of-school suspension to the death penalty, Fisher also says suspension has nearly become a form of institutionalized racism.

At Salisbury High, the ratio of blacks to whites is nearly half and half, with 6 percent of the student body comprised of other minority groups. But 74 percent of all students suspended were black, compared to just 20 percent who were white.

“I’m not buying the fact that black kids are committing more problems,” Fisher said. “We’ve got to ask why. If it’s black kids doing this then we need to get together and say, ‘OK black parents, you need to deal with this.’”

Harvard University law professor Christopher Edley, who sits on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, has likewise said punishments may be applied unfairly.

In the 1997-1998 school year, black children made up 17 percent of all the nation’s students — but 32 percent of those suspended.

Hispanics made up 14 percent of students and 13.5 percent of those suspended, while whites accounted for 63 percent of students and 51 percent of those suspended, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

At recent meetings, Fisher has questioned why children are sent home for non-violent offenses. This summer, Fisher pushed to change restrictions on school tobacco use. Instead of sending high school students home three days for a first offense, this fall they’ll face in-school suspension or three days out of school for a third offense.

Fisher suggests teaching students social skills after the regular school day as an alternative in some cases, or at least sending more materials home with children.

“I’m not for coddling kids who bring guns to school,” she said. “That’s one thing. But if a student is suspended for talking back or being disruptive, then maybe we need to teach some interpersonal skills.”

“ ... Why can’t we place curriculum materials in the home? We need to innovate.”

At Henderson Independent, the county’s alternative high school, one of every three children — 32 percent — was sent home for at least one day during the fall 1999 semester. Assistant Principal Margaret Kreimes said that in most cases the school had no choice.

“I do know that we truly had no other alternatives last year with the students,” Kreimes said. “It was truly the last alternative. We’re trying very hard to develop mechanisms that will allow students to stay here.”

This year Henderson Independent graduated 48 students, up from 20 last year.

“There’s been a lot of talk about changes,” said Dennis Sellers, a math teacher there. “What you find is that a lot of times if you suspend them, you play right into their hands because they want to go home anyway. We’re trying to do things differently because in an alternative school setting it is a different setting.”

The N.C. Legislature is now weighing ways to reduce suspension rates. A bill under consideration, Senate Bill 1255, requires school systems to make data on suspensions and expulsions available by race and gender.

“There is a growing interest in the increase in juvenile crime,” said Dee Brewer, a senior research and evaluation consultant for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. “When you think about juveniles being sent home, there is a greater chance that they will get into things they shouldn’t be.”

“ ... The bigger concern is where do we draw the line between what is the school’s problem and what is the community’s problem?”

Chris Boylan, an assistant principal at Salisbury High, sees no alternative to sending children home when violence or drugs are involved. “You have a job to do,” he said. “Do you want that kind of element there? No, absolutely not.”

Sellers, the math teacher at Henderson Independent, often wishes parents would approach him about students’ problems sooner.

“People are not involved enough,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be enough interest until this type of thing explodes.”