This form of punishment is rising significantly in just one demographic will other forms of punishment, such as alternative learning classrooms, are being implemented on a lesser basis. The bullying incident rate is low. This could either mean that the school is doing a really good job in deterring bullying or that bullying is taking place but then rarely identified. Further investigation should be pursued to determine which case is most accurate. It is suspected that the latter case might more accurate since cases of bullying generally go unidentified and unpunished. There should also further research to collect information about the "other" category. There has been a dramatic increase in the three-year period although the overall rate is still fairly low. These cases should therefore be examined on a case by case basis to determine if there is an invention that would be appropriate and what lies behind the increase.

The most common form of punishment was the out-of-school suspension followed by in-school detentions and then corporal punishment. The use of out-of-school suspensions has increased dramatically over the years while reaching a total of 130 disciplinary actions in 2006. The use of in-school suspension dropped significantly from 2004 to 2005 but seemingly plateaued in 2006. The use of corporal punishments has been on the decrease over the same period. In my opinion the use of corporal punishment should be a cause for concern and counterproductive overall in a school setting.

There are also a statistically higher number of student...

This is a serious matter that needs appropriate punishment. However, as previously mentioned, corporal punishment should not be utilized and alternative punishments such as in-school suspensions might be more appropriate Both corporal punishment as well as out-of-school suspension are likely to not provide the correct type of reinforcement and could be partly responsible for the increases in their occurrences. An intervention that appropriately rewards good behaviors will likely have a greater effect than using such types of punishments.
In the School Survey on Crime and Safety, school principals were asked how often certain disciplinary problems occur between the period of 1999 and 2000 and found that the most common problems vary greatly by the type of school (National Center for Educatonial Statistics, 2000). Student bullying was the most common problem in elementary schools as well as schools overall. The next most common problem was the disrespect for teachers followed by undesirable gang activities. Student verbal abuse of teachers was the next most common problem and finally student racial tensions was ranked number five on the list.

Works Cited

National Center for Educatonial Statistics. (2000). Discipline Problems Reported by Public Schools. Retrieved from Institute of Education Sciences: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/crime_safe04/indicator_16.asp

OSEP. (2013). School-wide PBIS. Retrieved from OSEP Technical Assistance Center: http://www.pbis.org/school/default.aspx