Bad behavior at school is leading to an alarming surge in students getting suspended in a New Jersey city, and the superintendent thinks social media is partly to blame for the rise in violence.
The dramatic rise in the number of students suspended in Jersey City moved a substitute teacher for the district to tears.
"Honestly how much can I do, me being compared to everybody," said teacher Obina Onuchukwu. "I don't feel like kids should be labeled so young, it doesn't make sense to me, they're still growing up."
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Leaders in the city are determined to reverse the trend that's only gotten worse as the school year has progressed, evidenced by student suspensions up 140% since September.
In the month of March alone, nearly 500 students were suspended district-wide. The most serious out-of-school suspensions for disruptive behavior and fighting also more than doubled.
"Imagine how they feel if they're all getting suspended, all getting into fights. How their ego would say 'Oh, I'm a bad kid,'" Onuchukwu said.
Jersey City's superintendent has placed some of the blame on social media, saying in a statement: "Online platforms that glorify fighting, and aggressive verbal altercations, have become very popular and have influenced many children’s behaviors."
Mental health professionals say acting out in school is a concern that goes well beyond Jersey City, though.
"Modeling has taken on a whole new concept since we had the internet, and you're seeing a tremendous amount of violence on the internet, all kinds of things on TikTok...that could account for some of the violence you see, some of the acting out behavior," said psychologist Dr. Harris Stratyner.
At Snyder High school, 104 suspensions were recorded in March, in a school with only 739 students. Some teachers have said they're trying to break the cycle by going back to basics:
"I'm not doing anything different, I just talk to them," Onuchukwu said.
There are also concerns that students are still suffering the effects of COVID shutdowns and disruptions. Jersey City has now opened four mental health clinics in the high schools and they started Project Resilience, a trauma support system for students.
