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Nilesh Wishwasrao, a former student at Flushing High School, said he’s been suspended from school so many times that he finally lost count.

“Their first reaction was always a suspension,” Wishwasrao recalled Wednesday at a City Council hearing about the Department of Education’s suspension data released last month.

Wishwasrao said he was suspended “constantly” for what he said were small infractions, such as chewing gum and wearing a hat in school. Sometimes he was more disruptive, “talking back to a teacher, yelling at a dean.”

Finally, Wishwasrao testified, a guidance counselor met with his father to explain that high school probably wasn’t right for him and “it would be better if I get a GED rather than a high school diploma.”

Wishwasrao never graduated and is now pursuing his GED.

Wishwasrao was part of a chorus of criticism from students and advocates who testified at the hearing, held by the City Council’s education committee. Their testimonies came directly after DOE officials shed more light on suspensions in the city schools and promised changes to how some suspensions are handled.

At least 45,939 students — or 4.5 percent of the city’s student population — were suspended during the 2010-2011 school year, Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm said in her testimony. The majority of them — 70 percent — were suspended just once, she said, but more than one in 10 — about 6,000 students — were suspended three or more times. (more…)

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• The principal of Jane Addams is also under scrutiny for charging teachers for free parking. (Daily News)
• The state’s testing director resigned abruptly. (GothamSchools, Post, SchoolBook, Daily News, WSJ)
• Murrow High School, which had “an emphasis on freedom,” suspends students freely. (Brooklyn Paper)
• Mayor Bloomberg said he would in theory fire half of teachers and pay the remaining ones more. (Post)
• New York’s Educators 4 Excellence is expanding to Los Angeles, where the union is fractured. (WSJ)
• The fabled chess program at Williamsburg’s IS 318 is running out of money to operate. (Daily News)
• A probe found some violations at the Shuang Wen School. (GothamSchools, NY1, SchoolBook, Post)
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• Nationwide data confirms that poor students are more often taught by low-paid teachers. (Times)
• A new report finds Chicago’s charter schools are a mixed bag, like all the city’s schools. (Tribune)