David Bulley:
>Under the traditional system, Cindy would have been suspended immediately, even though we know that suspensions significantly contribute to the likelihood that a student will eventually drop out. She would have made an enemy of the boys and their friends for the remainder of the school year — and that antagonism would be essentially promoted and encouraged by the administration’s stay-away orders and safety plans. The boys would never have known the harm they caused and how to avoid it in the future. Cindy would never have known that the boys didn’t actually intend anything racist. Rather than solving a problem, everything about the traditional way of handling situations like this one only contributes to the likelihood that it will happen again.
Dealing with behaviors in school is all about finding out why something happened, and then doing the smallest or simplest thing that will have the biggest impact.
Via [Alfie Kohn](http://ow.ly/)Gfe16
Most school leaders are running around putting out fires. I help leaders stop putting out fires, and start leading.
