Queens high school tops city’s list of most suspended students
Richmond Hill HS is suspending more of its students than any other school in New York City.
The Queens secondary school, which has 2,169 students, handed out 492 suspensions as of May 5, according to city records.
That’s more than the 473 school officials doled out all of last year — and there’s still about six weeks left before classes end.
Vishnu Mahadeo, the school’s PTA president, blamed the high punishment rate on overcrowding and “weak leadership.”
“We have a new principal that is trying to bring up a behavior code,” he said. “When you don’t have strong leadership, the kids tend to be a little bit out of control. When you have a strong leadership, things change.”
Parents familiar with the school said overcrowding and disciplinary problems go hand-in-hand.
“When you push kids into overcrowded conditions, many will react in frustration and anger because it shows a school system doesn’t care about them,” said parent advocate Leonia Haimson.
The school’s principal, Neil Ganesh, didn’t return calls. He’s the third person appointed to lead the school in the last three years.
Other schools leading the suspension list include: Staten Island’s Susan Wagner HS, with 420; Democracy and Leadership HS in Brooklyn, with 313; Sheepshead Bay HS in Brooklyn with 266; Martin Van Buren HS in Queens with 264; and Lehman HS in The Bronx with 254.
Last year, Sheepshead Bay led the city with 480 suspensions. The 1,005-student school is known as a “dumping ground” for “overage and under-credited” students who have been pushed out of other schools.
Some schools managed even steeper drops than Sheepshead Bay. Grace Dodge Career and Technical Education HS in The Bronx, which suspended 287 students last year, was down to 34 this year.
Muba Yarofulani, co-president of the Coalition for Public Education advocacy group, said there would be fewer suspensions if principals had to explain their high numbers.
“Nobody is holding them accountable for these suspensions and the manner in which they are being done,” she said.
Department of Education spokesman Harry Hartfield said that finding alternatives to suspensions is a “priority” for the administration.
“Toward that end, we have been committed to working with advocate groups, principals and community members to address this issue,” he said.
Suspensions have dropped since 2011-12, when there were 69,643. There were 53,465 in the 2012-13 school year, and so far this year 44,026 students have been slammed with the punishment.
