The Rochester city school district suspended 11,000 students during the 2006-2007 school year.

The situation has grown so bad that some teachers are afraid of going to work. And some students and their parents are equally apprehensive.

The district held a public hearing on its code of conduct policy last night at the central office. Suspensions and school safety were part of the discussion.

The meeting should have been well-attended, but it wasn't.

Board members Tom Brennan, Cynthia Elliott, and Willa Powell listened to recommendations from a handful of concerned parents and community leaders.

And, not surprisingly, there was little consensus.

Increasing the number of hallway sentries, applying the rules and punishment with consistency, and increasing the number of student mentors were some of the suggestions.

"We have talked and talked about suspensions for the last 20 years," said Glenny Williams. "But before we begin changing a policy, shouldn't we be reviewing what works and what hasn't worked?"

Williams is the grandparent of a student, and sometimes an outspoken critic of the district.

But maybe the best suggestion came from City Court Judge Thomas Morse, who said he was attending as a concerned citizen, since he sees students who have been repeatedly suspended, dropped out, and gotten themselves into trouble.

"I would suggest we look at the values policy first," he said.

"What is that?" someone asked.

"It tells us how parents, teachers, and students should treat one another," Morse said.

"In a democratic society, we recognize that values are essentially behaviors that we want to encourage, that we give positive reinforcement."

That Morse gave his civics lesson to a room of 15 people is too bad.

Meeting him in his official capacity will be a much harder lesson.