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In the late 1930s, when I was a middle school student in West Salem, we were subjected to the last vestiges of the totally discredited corporal punishment practices for the management of student behavior.

My teacher, an austere woman who practiced “zero tolerance” before the phrase was invented, had the habit of sneaking up behind an offending victim, closing her fist with the middle knuckle sticking out, and whacking the unsuspecting student on the head several times. In more severe discipline situations, she would bring the transgressor to the front of the room, pick up a wicked three-sided ruler, and deliver a few sharp strokes to the palm. When really angry, she would deliver blows to the back of the hand.

Today such treatment of students would result in immediate dismissal. We have learned that corporal punishment simply does not work to achieve the objectives of educating children.

We need to apply this same evolved thinking to student expulsion and ask ourselves: is this punishment achieving positive results compared to alternatives? Does it support the goal of putting children first?

Wisconsin law, under its extremely complex and almost indecipherable Statute 120.13, School District Government, freely permits this draconian practice at the whim of each district school board and its school administrative staff, without meaningful oversight by the Department of Public Instruction.

Because no statute requires other public schools to admit an expelled student, the task of satisfying Wisconsin’s compulsory education law is left to the parents or guardians who must seek alternative educational options within their budget and time limitations. Many times, expelled students merely drift, at tremendous personal cost to themselves, their families and society.

In theory, the expulsion is meted out uniformly under this statute; in practice it is chaotic. Within Dane County, we have one small school district that has, in this academic year alone, expelled at least eight middle school students, all for terms of one school year or more, for first-time offenses that the board claimed qualified under the sheltering blanket of Statute 120.13(c).

This is in sharp contrast with the Middleton, Sun Prairie, Stoughton and Monona Grove districts, which have expelled almost no students. Instead they have wisely replaced expulsion with forward thinking and amazingly successful suspensions, coupled with remedial programs that have kept their troubled children within the public education system while helping them work through their problems.

We need to expand their enlightened practices throughout our 426 school districts, so we can eliminate our scourge of expelling 1,800 students a year.

We need our legislative and executive branches to take a fresh look at Statute 120.13 and make revisions that work toward eliminating the cancer of expulsions by providing a framework built around the positive practices of our successful school districts. The state’s major media should be urged to devote their talent and resources to an in-depth examination of the core question: “Who benefits from expulsions?”

Public hearings throughout the state should be held, and everyone with a stake in the educational system should have a voice, including a representative sampling of those students who were caught up in the expulsion process.

We need to make “children first” a reality, for all. We need to find the will to bring the enlightened alternatives to expulsion to every school district in the state. And we need to remember that it takes a village, town, city and state to raise a child.

Wil Selbrede is a West Salem High School graduate and World War II combat veteran. He now lives in Madison.