The 6,110 suspensions were the fewest since the introduction of the Safe Schools Act in 2001 and marked a big turnaround from the previous school year, which had set a record of 7,880.

Expulsions meanwhile dropped to 59 from 79 the year before, the second-lowest number in seven years.

“We’re very pleased about that,” superintendent of education Pam Rheinholdt told Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board trustees during a presentation on the latest results. She credited several factors for the improvement, like peer mediation, bullying prevention initiatives and community partnerships, including with one Hamilton police, who assigned six officers to city schools under a one-year pilot program.

In response to new legislative requirements, the board also introduced a Gateway program in February for students with longer suspensions and expulsions that allows them to continue their studies while getting help to “develop long-term positive attitudes and behaviours.”

Improvement

Despite welcoming the improvement, Stoney Creek Trustee Robert Barlow called it “a little bit disconcerting” that school surveys found only 78 per cent of elementary students felt safe all or most of the time. Eighty-eight percent felt so at high schools.

“That seemed low,” he said, asking whether there are problems not resulting in suspensions.

Dr. Kathy Short, a member of the board’s evidence-based education and services team, said the survey responses may reflect other fears unrelated to student behaviour, like worrying about traffic while waiting for the school bus.

According to the board’s annual Safe Schools Report, boys continued to receive the lion’s share of suspensions, accounting for 3,032 elementary and 1,778 secondary offences, or nearly 80 per cent.

Girls, meanwhile, received 659 elementary and 641 secondary suspensions.

Gender comparisons with previous years are difficult to determine because the format of this year’s report has changed and only offers a total number of suspensions, rather than the number of girls and boys suspended, as in the previous year’s report.

But the overall percentage of suspended students dropped to 5.5 per cent at elementary schools and nine per cent at high schools, compared to 6.9 and 10.8 per cent, respectively, for the previous year.

Students were most likely to be disciplined for the catch-all “other board-set infraction,” which accounted for more than 80 per cent of all suspensions.

Elementary offences

At the elementary level, the next most prevalent offences were swearing (214), uttering threats (151), vandalism (75) and bullying (66). A further 19 were for possession of a weapon, 13 for assault, 12 for robbery, ten for possession of alcohol or drugs and five for influence of alcohol.

For high school students, the next most prevalent offences were possession of alcohol or drugs (190), followed by influence of alcohol (127), swearing (110) and uttering threats (34). Sixteen suspensions were for possession of a weapon, nine for assault, nine for bullying, four for robbery, and three for drug trafficking.

Among expulsions, 18 were at elementary schools and 41 at high schools. The biggest categories were possession of a weapon (14), assault causing bodily harm requiring treatment by a medical practitioner (13), behaviour/damage to property (12) and use of a weapon to cause or threaten bodily harm (six). One was for sexual assault, while another three were for trafficking in drugs or weapons.

Parkside in Dundas had the fewest suspensions among high schools, at 44, while Delta had the most, at 276. At the elementary level, Memorial in Hamilton had the most suspensions, at 353, but ten schools registered no suspensions.