Inside look at in-school suspension classroom isn't what many might suspect

There is a small room with a bright yellow door labeled "ISS" at the campus for Chico Unified School District's continuation schools.

The in-school suspension room at Academy For Change, Nov. 20

If you walk inside, you'll be surprised at just how quiet it is: students from different school districts are leafing through books, snoozing on desks or just sitting quietly. The hum of a heater is the loudest thing you'll hear on a late fall day.

It definitely isn't what most people would expect for an in-school suspension classroom.

Dave Shockley, former police officer and CUSD's in-school suspension teacher for junior high and high schools, said that people will be surprised when they come in because they have heard all of these horror stories. But those stories are few and far between.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, we just get kids that are angry," he said. "Angry at life in general. And they come in here and they have a quiet place to be."

That isn't to say that those intense moments don't happen. Shockley often takes the brunt students' anger, which often emerges as a stream of curses directed at him. Other times, students or groups of students will come in, upset and cursing, and storm out before they can calm down.

"(Most) of the time they're angry at their home life and they take it out on the first adult they see," he said. "And I'm here."

The students in ISS, who can be from any junior high or high school, are not required to do anything while in the room but finish their time in ISS, which varies depending on the incident that got them sent there in the first place. It can be anywhere from two to five days.

Shockley has plenty for the students to do, evident in the bookshelves filled with classroom textbooks in the ISS room, and does offer the students work to do. But "if they turn it down, that's on them," he said.

He doesn't enforce any student in ISS do work, especially if they refuse to do it.

Similarly, students will sometimes leave the ISS room, and Shockley has no way to make them stay if they really want to leave. When they come back, he'll let them know they need to stay in the room, and he calls parents to let them know if their child left that day.

"If they're going to leave, they're going to leave," he said. "But they'll be back."

How many students are in the ISS room at any given time just depends on what is happening at schools in the district. Sometimes it's full and sometimes there are only a few students in there.

David McKay, principal of continuation schools in CUSD, said that the classroom is like a time-out room. Students who are not able to work in class without being disruptive or who have violated school rules dictated by Education Code will be sent to ISS from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. until their time is up.

“The idea is for them to complete work in a struct environment," McKay said, "where they could get help if they need to get help or get their stuff done instead of being at home unsupervised.”