Suspended students spend their punishment taking classes

MABLETON - Students suspended for bad behavior in this Cobb County School District will not be able to go home and spend their punishment hanging out, and in some cases, getting into more trouble. <br> <br> Instead, students are required to spend the day going to class and attending counseling sessions at the county&#39;s new Transitional Learning Center, or TLC. <br> <br> Students will go to class, keep up with their school work and attend one-on-one counseling sessions aimed at getting to the root of emotional or behavioral problems. <br> <br> Last year, when attendance was optional, only 25 percent of all suspended students or about 31 students a day for grades six through 12 chose to go to TLC. <br> <br> But since attendance became mandatory this year, daily attendance at the center is up to about 95 students a day, with about 3,000 expected to pass through during the school year, said Rose McNeese, director of alternative education programs for the school district. <br> <br> ``Juvenile justice was concerned that when kids are suspended, they are unsupervised and are more likely to engage in criminal activity,&#39;&#39; McNeese told the Marietta Daily Journal. <br> <br> Most students at the TLC are there for violent offenses, ranging from threats to fights to bringing weapons to school, or for repeatedly committing lesser offenses. <br> <br> Students stay at the center from 9 a.m. to about 2 p.m. At the center, teachers spend half of the day helping students with class assignments and provide additional tutoring. <br> <br> The rest of the day is spent counseling students, trying to address the behavior and emotional problems that may have played a part in the suspension in the first place, reported the Marietta paper in its Sunday edition. <br> <br> ``The ultimate goal ... is just to try to make them understand what the reason was for how they got here, and what they can do to prevent coming here in the future,&#39;&#39; said Jennifer Brooks, TLC counselor. <br> <br> Part of the program also includes a formal apology letter written by the students to their home school. <br> <br> ``(The letter) helps them to accept responsibility for the problem,&#39;&#39; McNeese said.