School suspensions will no longer just be a punishment for Chilliwack students.

A new Alternative Suspension program is set to make suspensions more "meaningful and educational."

The Chilliwack school district and the Greater Vancouver YMCA have partnered to bring in the Alternative Suspension program to the Chilliwack school district starting this January.

Alternative Suspension is a program that gives students, who are on a long-term suspension, a place to go, away from their school, where they can continue their school work, as well as deal with the issue that got them suspended in the first place.

Rather than suspending a student and sending them home to play video games or hang out on the streets, often without supervision, this program gives them a place to go, said David Woollven, manager of the Chilliwack Family YMCA.

In the program, students will be under the supervision of qualified youth workers, and will be given time to catch up on their schoolwork, with one-on-one assistance. They will also participate in group workshops that cover topics like anger management, drugs and alcohol, personal organization, reactions towards authority, etc.

Alternative Suspension was first developed by the YMCA in 1999 in Montreal. This year, through funding from the National Crime Prevention Strategy, it branched out to seven other cities across the country.

Chilliwack is the only city in B.C. to implement the program.

"Right now there's not a lot of educational component to school suspensions," said John-Henry Harter, chair of the Chilliwack board of education. "All it is right now is punitive, but just because a student breaks a rule doesn't mean their education should stop ... the idea here is that we provide something more meaningful and educational."

And give the students support in dealing with the issues that got them suspended in the first place.

Which will hopefully result in the reduction of repeat student suspensions.

The Alternative Suspension program will start in January, 2010.

kbartel@theprogress.com