do not admit

Most days, I receive an email with an attached document: Do Not Admit List. It gives the names of students who are suspended, what grade they are in, what they have been suspended for, and when they should be returning to school.

On the one hand, it is a relief to see some students will be gone and will not be disrupting my class or talking back to me or bullying or picking a fight. On the other hand, that is another opportunity for those students to fall behind and fail and another opportunity lost to maybe actually teach them something. And sometimes I get that list and it has a student on it with whom I rarely have a problem, offense listed as "disrespect," and I know that once again one of my students is getting punished for standing up to an adult who couldn't keep their cool. And everyday I have to deal with that fallout.

The biggest relief sometimes, is not when a student is absent, but when a teacher is absent.