Bratty, Boorish Behavior is Getting Young Pupils Expelled

Lauri Githens Hatch

Staff Writer

(October 6, 2005) Networks have hit a gold mine with shows like Super Nanny and Nanny 911, in which hideously ill-behaved tots and their witless parents are eventually brought to heel.

Teachers who have these tiny terrors in class aren’t finding the behavior entertaining at all. Instead, they’re finding the classroom door and ushering the problem child out for good.

Preschool expulsions are on the rise, according to a survey of almost 4,000 educators and caregivers in 40 states. Unclear on what’s causing the swearing, biting, scratching, kicking and throwing of objects and unable to physically restrain or discipline the unruly instructors are ousting kids before they get to kindergarten.

A snapshot of the Yale University study: The national rate is nearly seven preschoolers expelled for every 1,000 students; New York state had the 12th-highest rate with just more than nine expulsions for every 1,000 students; and African-American boys age 4 or older are the most likely to get tossed out.

Predictably, the study has triggered a wide range of emotions, from sadness and frustration to simple relief that the problem is getting attention.

“This is a huge issue. I’ve been dying to talk about this,” says Linda Alpert-Gillis, clinical director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

“In the past five years we’re seeing unusually aggressive behaviors that teachers can’t address. Biting, kicking, scratching, hitting, throwing things, breaking things. And it’s across the board it’s in suburban and urban centers and schools.”

Pre-K teachers in the city have in the past three years twice identified unruliness and aggression behaviors as top issues. “It’s a top concern, children who simply cannot control their own behaviors,” says Laurie Brugger, senior project coordinator for the Children’s Institute, which evaluates programs in 168 classrooms at 80 locations across Rochester.

Roots of bad behavior Children as young as 2 already exhibit frustration easily because they’re experiencing and feeling far more than they can describe. And while the Yale study noted this (one child cut a classroom’s computer cords in order to “free” the mice), it largely found more grave problems such as punching, biting and throwing things. Tanica Kinsey’s 3-year-old daughter attends the Head Start program on Jefferson Avenue. While helping out one day this summer, she noticed a boy whose misbehavior got the teacher’s eye.

“She took his hand, he yanked it out. She took it again, he yanked it out. She took it again, and was like, ‘Don’t pull away, you’ll fall, take my hand’ and he still yanked it out. But she kept going, and eventually he walked with her. I never would have done that when I was little.”

Terri Censak, a Brighton mother of two, says she’s noticed an increase in rougher language and emotional abuse. “I think kids are definitely crueler now than they used to be. There’s stronger language and ‘I hate you’ a lot earlier than I remember.”

Why are these children who can barely tie their shoes nonetheless applying their feet and their fists, and their teeth and the occasional chair to other children and teachers?

Kate Ring, deputy director of early childhood services for Action for a Better Community, which runs the seven local Head Start centers, sees two causes.

“When you see the news of the shootings and violence, that’s where many of these kids are coming from. And when you add poverty to dysfunction, it’s very trying on children who are already trying to adjust to socializing at this age.”

She also notes a lack of adequate staff trained to deal with children who arrive already diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Suburban children are also absorbing extreme stress from their families.

Parents “are very stressed from fighting economic pressures, they’re often separated from extended family and they may not have time for contact or involvement with a church or community,” says Dr. Anthony Pisani, a psychologist and family therapist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

“Lack of discipline also certainly plays a role. Many parents now may have been treated too harshly by their own parents and so have adopted a more permissive style, albeit with good intentions. Parenting has become a profession, and it’s hard for them to know what (method) to trust.”

There’s also a medical issue lurking behind some of this behavior, says Alpert-Gillis. “A significant percentage (of these children) have speech delays. And when kids don’t have language, they tend to express themselves physically rather than verbally.”

Addressing the issue Experts also generally agree on the negative impact of showing a toddler the door even if he’s too tiny to open it himself.

“Expulsion shouldn’t be a first response,” says Alpert-Gillis. She isn’t even convinced it should be a second, third or fourth response to savage toddler behavior.

“First, it tells a child, before he’s even begun school, that he’s unacceptable. But it also leaves these families with nowhere to go. In outer communities and counties, this is a huge problem. These kids go unsocialized, so by kindergarten the behaviors are really out of control.”

Head Start takes a team approach, communicating regularly with parents, offering support and working with mental health agencies if a family is in crisis or if emotional disturbances become severe. It will expel only if behavior poses a significant threat to the child or other students, or if the family isn’t cooperating.

“Otherwise, we won’t prevent them from coming here, even if they are acting out,” she adds. “Because these kids have nowhere else to go.”

Includes reporting by the San Jose Mercury News.

– Lauri Githens Hatch