American Civil Liberties Union with the Legal Aid Justice Center’s JustChildren program, announce an anti-discrimination complaint against Richmond Public Schools this week.
American Civil Liberties Union with the Legal Aid Justice Center’s JustChildren program, announce an anti-discrimination complaint against Richmond Public Schools this week. The complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights over RPS’s use of discipline in their halls.
According to the complaint, Black children and children with disabilities receive harsher punishments than the rest of their peers. With data given from the Virginia Department of Education, in the 2014-15 school year, Black students with disabilities were 12.91 times more likely than White students without disabilities to be short-term suspended.
The complaint calls for a different approach to student misconduct and discipline. As we reported last April, The Center for Public Integrity found Virginia tops the country in referring students to law enforcement, at almost 16 referrals per 1,000 children. This rate is almost three times the national average. Among those referred kids was Kayleb Moon-Robinson, an 11-year-old autistic boy who kicked over a trashcan in his Lynchburg public school.
The police officer assigned to Moon-Robinson’s school filed a disorderly conduct charge against the boy in juvenile court.
Weeks later, Moon-Robinson disobeyed a rule to not leave class and he found himself thrown against the ground in handcuffs by the same officer.
“I thought in my mind — Kayleb is 11,” Stacey Doss, Kayleb’s mother, told PRI after the report was released. “He is autistic. He doesn’t fully understand how to differentiate the roles of certain people.”
Since that report it appears, according to the ACLU, RPS continues to struggle with punishment for those most at risk.
“The school division must conduct an unflinching examination of these disparities and adopt strategies to improve school climate and ensure that discipline policies are fair for all students,” said Lynetta Thompson, president of the Richmond NAACP.
The ACLU suggested many of these minor offenses could be solved with positive behavioral interventions and support, along with improved training for school resource officers and working with educators to address student behavior and misconduct.
With that being said, infractions could possibly lead to a trip to the principal’s office rather than the local juvenile court system.
The manner of student discipline in the education system has been scrutinized time and time again. The U.S Department of Education addressed this issue in 2014, referring to racial discrimination as a huge problem in today’s educational system.
“Our Guiding Principles document highlights the need for locally-developed approaches to promote positive school climates and equitable discipline practices.” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan after the release of that report. “Yet at the same time, we think those locally-tailored approaches should be grounded in research and promising practices–instead of being based on indiscriminate zero tolerance policies, or, at the other extreme, ad-hoc approaches to discipline.” Although this topic has been addressed before, it seems their has been a lack in advancement.
“Suspensions hurt everyone. Students who are removed from school are at a greater risk of academic failure, dropping out, and becoming involved in the justice system,” said Rachael Deane, an attorney with the Legal Aid Justice Center. “We hope this complaint leads to a positive transformation within the city schools.”
RPS leaders have yet to release a statement following the press release.
