Instead of being in a classroom with his friends, Drew Robinson had to spend three days in suspension, working quietly on homework.

The 16-year-old Natrona County High School student didn't do his work service, landing him at the Safe Schools Suspension Lab for three days.

"It's completely different," the 10th-grader said. "You just sit at a table and you don't go to different classes. It's boring. You don't get to talk to your friends."

The suspension lab, which is in a new home at the district office on Glenn Road, provides an alternative learning environment for students who have behavior problems and were removed from their regular classroom environment.

The district believes it's more effective than sending students home, where they may be unsupervised and could get further off-track.

The district hopes the experience may deter students like Robinson from coming back again. Robinson has been at the suspension lab off and on throughout the years, and said he wants his first time this year to be his last.

The lab, which has three teachers and two teaching assistants, is open daily from 7:30 a.m. until 2:45 p.m., said Wayne Beatty, district Safe Schools administrator. The environment is very structured and students aren't allowed to have cell phones. They're assigned seats and have to stay there during the day and do their work.

As soon as they come into the building, the students have to sign in and are checked with a metal-detector wand.

"Each day we know who's expected to be here," Beatty said.

Each student has a different reason for being there.

Shantel Webb, 14, who attends Roosevelt High School, will be at the lab for 10 days for fighting. She was sitting at one of the tables waiting for the school day to end. She's hoping this will be her last time at the lab.

Callie Johnston, 14, who attends Kelly Walsh High School, will be staying at the lab for the rest of the semester. She was sent there for truancy and is doing some credit recovery while she is there. Her English class is self-taught online. Johnston works through the assignments, takes pratice tests and then takes the final test for the credit.

She's planning to take all the work she's done so far to the judge who is overseeing her truancy case. She will use that work to prove she is willing to stay on track educationally.

Actions have consequences

Pat McEneaney-Colley, one of the teachers at the suspension lab, said district officials make sure the program provides an atmosphere for learning, but also shows the children there are consequences to their actions.

"We want them to realize that there are fun learning activities going on in the classroom," she said. "If they don't appreciate or cannot fit themselves into that learning style, then this is the place for them."

McEneaney-Colley said the program does help some of the students.

"Some kids make significant changes while they're here and some don't," she said. "Some keep coming back."

This school year there have been 357 first-time referrals so far. Of those, 45 students have returned after a second referral. Fifteen students have returned after a third referral, four after a fourth referral and two after a fifth.

Some teachers go above and beyond to help bring students back to school.

To help him stay on track educationally, Robinson's tutor, Rick Arner, decided to go to the suspension lab to work with him even though tutors aren't required to.

Arner said he gets the assignments from the teachers and then works with Robinson and others he's tutoring.

"I thought, why can't we just go to the kids," Arner said. "I thought, these are good kids who made bad choices."

Reach reporter Aimee Tabor at (307) 266-0593 or aimee.tabor@casperstartribune.net.