More students suspended from Ottawa’s public school board last year

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. (Tyler Fleming / CTV News Ottawa)

Ottawa’s largest school board saw an increase in the number of students suspended from school for bad behaviour last year.

A report for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board shows 2,373 suspensions were issued to Grade 4 to 12 students during the 2023-24 school year, up from 2,114 suspensions in 2022-23 and 1,399 suspensions in 2021-22.

Staff say 1,725 students were suspended during the 2023-24 school year, up from 1,485 students in 2022-23. In 2018-19, 1,981 students were suspended from Ottawa’s public elementary and secondary schools.

“The increase in suspensions is driven by mandatory suspensions, which are issued when a student engages in activity that poses a significant safety concern,” staff say, noting there were 609 mandatory suspensions in 2023-24 compared to 347 the year before.

According to the report, 59 per cent of suspensions issued were one-day suspensions from school. A total of 91 suspensions were for longer than 11 days.

“The most common reasons cited for suspensions for elementary and secondary include conduct injurious to the physical or mental well-being of others in the school and any act considered by the principal to be contrary to the District or school code of conduct or Board policies,” the board says.

The report shows three mandatory suspensions in elementary schools were issued for “committing sexual assault,” and two suspensions were issued for committing robbery or extortion. In secondary schools, 24 suspensions were issued for possessing a weapon, nine suspensions were issued for “committing sexual assault,” four suspensions for “committing robbery or extortion” and three suspensions were for trafficking weapons or illegal drugs.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board says 3.2 per cent of students in Grades 4 to 12 were suspended from class during the 2023-24 school year, up from 2.8 per cent in 2022-2023.

A total of 1,323 males and 390 females were suspended during the 2023-24 school year.

“Based on data from our student information system: students with special education needs (excluding gifted) are suspended at almost twice the rate of the overall student population, among which those with a behavioural exceptionality are suspended most often,” the report says, noting 745 students in the special education program were suspended last school year.

“Students who identify as Indigenous, males, students who reside in low-income neighbourhoods, and Multilingual learners are suspended at a higher rate than all students. Compared to the previous, disproportionalities have decreased for some groups, but increased for Multilingual learners, males, and students with special education needs.”

Five students were expelled from OCDSB schools during the 2023-24 school year.

Reasons for suspensions

Secondary school

• Conduct injurious to the physical or mental well-being of others in the school: 314 suspensions
• Any act considered by the principal to be contrary to the code of conduct: 129 suspensions
• Student engages in activities “that can cause his or her presence in the school to be injurious to the physical or emotional well-being of other persons”: 144 suspensions
• Smoking/vaping on school property: 73 suspensions
• Committing physical assault or another person that causes bodily harm: 60 suspensions

Elementary schools

• Conduct injurious to the physical or mental well-being of others in the school: 543 suspensions
• Any act considered by the principal to be contrary to the code of conduct: 150 suspensions
• Student engages in activities “that can cause his or her presence in the school to be injurious to the physical or emotional well-being of other persons”: 86 suspensions
• Persistent opposition to authority: 52
• Uttering a threat to inflict serious bodily harm on another person: 48 suspensions
• Bullying: 39 suspensions