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This letter is in response to the June 11 article, ["Task force: Suspensions ineffective in improving students' behavior"]. As a retired teacher, who has spent 38 years in public education, I would agree with that statement. However, I support the use of suspensions for several reasons.

To say that suspensions do not change the undesirable behavior of a student is true. However, the same can be said that the penal system does not change the behavior of a criminal, yet we continue to incarcerate offenders against society. Schools, like society, establish rules and standards to be followed.

In our school system, sometimes the most flagrant violations require a student to be removed temporarily, which a suspension accomplishes. It may not change that student's behavior, but it may send a clear message to another student who is considering the same negative act. Finally, students who come to school on a daily basis and follow those standards deserve to have a learning environment that is free of those habitual offenders.

The solution is not simple, but until a better one comes along, I will continue to support an administrator's power to suspend serious offenders.

John W. Bailey, Laurel