catalyst-chicago.org

The number of students suspended and expelled in Chicago Public Schools declined a bit in 2009, after rising to new heights in 2008.

While experts warn of a tendency to under-report disciplinary actions, the decline could be the result of efforts in some schools to implement alternative forms of discipline, such as peer juries and in-school suspension rooms.

Once upon a time, DeMarcus Hyler was an aimless sophomore at Kenwood Academy on the South Side. But he wanted to be cool, so when the cool kids started a mentoring group, he joined and followed.

“Kyle had the girls and the clothes and the car,” DeMarcus says of Kyle McGhee, who founded the Brotherhood group at Kenwood in 2004. “I wanted the girls and the clothes and the car, so I wanted to be everywhere Kyle was.”

That decision turned his life around.

Marshall High School Principal Juan Gardner and his entire administrative team were removed this summer, three years after Gardner took over at the long-failing East Garfield Park school. There’s no official word as to why, but Gardner had two strong marks against him: The school failed to improve, despite extra resources and new curricula; and he was accused of falsifying a document related to a lawsuit against him that cost the district $500,000.