News : informal removals that schools use to remove challenging students with disabilities from class

A former colleague is a principal and she has a problem. She has a student with behavioral issues which include shouting, pushing and non-violent aggression, and in general he interrupts and even halts most of his classes. He also has an IEP and when she met with the parents after one incident, they made clear that their advocacy for him would include litigation should she do almost anything. Over the last two years, around 50 students have left the school citing specifically this student's negative effect on learning and/or fears of potential violence.

I broke my finger; the solution is to chop off my arm

We hear again and again that the public district school system is broken and not fit for purpose. Some of these criticisms are justified and supported by evidence, some are valid but hard to pinpoint and thus hard to evidence, and some are just wrong. Inevitably the result is almost entirely political. Instead of fixing what is broken, the solution is to create something new. This is not even treating the symptom and ignoring the disease. This is cutting off an arm beause of a broken finger.