Virginia schools Archives

When Virginia’s schoolchildren return to in-person schooling after the pandemic, they’ll return to a school system in which criminal punishments for unruly in-school behavior have largely been taken off the table.

The near future of in-person schooling is uncertain due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Virginia students will return to a system where several penalties for misbehavior have been taken off the table.

Two new laws seek to stop criminal punishments in elementary, middle, and secondary schools. Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, sponsored two measures that passed the Virginia General Assembly earlier this year. The bills went into effect in July but have not yet been widely implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senate Bill 3 prevents students from being charged with disorderly conduct during school, on buses, or at school-sponsored events. SB 729 removes a requirement that school principals report student acts that constitute a misdemeanor to law enforcement. These are acts that may be considered misdemeanors, such as assault on school property, including on a bus or at a school-sponsored event.

McClellan’s bills are a victory, said Valerie Slater, executive director of RISE For Youth, a group that seeks to end youth incarceration in Virginia.

“It gives the control back to principals in their own schools about what actions have to be taken further,” versus which actions can be handled within the school, Slater said.

*Virginia state Senator Jennifer McClellan. Photo by Susan Shibut.*

Suspension and expulsion are used disproportionately against Black students, other students of color, and those with disabilities, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Those punishments, along with arrests at school, often lead to students having a criminal record, according to the NAACP. The trend is known as the school-to-prison pipeline.

McClellan said she was compelled to introduce these bills after looking at data released by the Center for Public Integrity in 2015 and seeing that Virginia led the nation in nearly three times the rate of referral of students to law enforcement. She then worked with the Legal Aid Justice Center to find trends in what kind of behaviors were being punished and whether there were discrepancies involving which students were being charged.

“When we started sort of digging into some of the cases that they had had, one of the biggest things kids were referred for was disorderly conduct,” McClellan said. “It was things like a kid on a bus in Henrico County was charged for singing a rap song and a kid in Lynchburg was sent to the principal’s office and kicked this trash can on the way out of class.”

McClellan was the co-patron of bills in 2016 which addressed these issues, including a failed bill which would prevent students from being found guilty of disorderly conduct if the action occurred on school property, school bus, or at a school-sponsored activity.

Lawmakers also passed McClellan’s measure that relieved school resource officers from the obligation to enforce school board rules and codes of student conduct as a condition of their employment. Now that the Virginia General Assembly has a Democratic majority, House Democrats felt that they could pass other legislation to curb the school-to-prison pipeline, according to McClellan.

“The thing that happened in between is we had started making progress on the discipline side, with things like suspensions and expulsions,” McClellan said. “And once you saw we could make progress on that, that gave us the confidence to try again with a new Democratic majority.”

A statewide analysis by Virginia Commonwealth University Capital News Service found that Norfolk City Public Schools in the Tidewater district had the most out-of-school suspensions in the state over the past five school years. This includes short-term and long-term suspensions. The data is from the Virginia Department of Education. A student is not allowed to attend school for up to 10 days during a short-term suspension, according to Virginia law. Long-term suspensions last 11 to 45 school days. Virginia students suspended from school are more likely to fail academically, drop out of school, and become involved in the justice system, said a 2018 Legal Aid Justice Center report.

Norfolk’s school district issued 21,223 out-of-school suspensions in the past five years. Norfolk school officials did not respond to a request for a statement by the time of publication. Richmond City Public Schools was the second-highest district with the most out-of-school suspensions (19,768). Virginia Beach, Newport News, and Fairfax County public schools were also in the top five. The majority of students in Norfolk, Richmond, and Newport News public schools are Black, according to VDOE 2020 fall enrollment data. Almost half of students in Virginia Beach are white and about a quarter are Black. Nearly 40 percent of students in Fairfax County Public Schools are white and almost 30 percent are Hispanic.

Black students face out-of-school suspension at higher rates at a higher rate than white students in schools throughout the Central Virginia region. Even in districts such as Henrico and New Kent, counties that have a majority white student population, often Black students were issued suspensions at a higher rate. Black students in Henrico faced out-of-school suspension almost five times the rate of white students in the 2015-2016 school year. Such racial disparity was presented to the Henrico County School Board as far back as 2012, in a published report analyzing the disproportionate suspension rate.

Aside from incidents involving weapons, Slater said that instances of misbehavior in school should not be handled by law enforcement.

“We should not be so quick to involve children in the justice system,” Slater said. “We know that after that first contact, the likelihood that there will be continued engagement exponentially goes up. Once a child has been engaged with the juvenile justice system, they’re more likely to be involved with the adult justice system.”

Slater praised McClellan’s legislation for taking away schools’ ability to charge students with disorderly conduct, saying that the criteria for being charged with that crime is too vague.

“It basically says that ‘you have caused a disruption.’” Slater said. “Is wiggling in my seat causing a disruption? Is asking to go to the restroom, repeatedly, causing a disruption? Is clicking my pen a disruption? It’s so vague that it’s become a catchall for whatever a particular officer wants to say a student has done.”

David Coogan, a Virginia Commonwealth University English professor and author of the book Writing Our Way Out, teaches a writing workshop at the Richmond City Justice Center He said he has worked closely with incarcerated people whose criminal records stemmed from childhood.

“Most broadly, it starts in the structure of society, before you even get to school,” Coogan said.

Coogan said that he sees a pattern in the people he works with at the jail. Children who grow up with few resources and who experience trauma and violence in the school setting later develop addictions or become incarcerated — often both.

“We all do stupid things as kids, as teenagers,” Coogan said. “When you’re Black and traumatized and living in poverty, the stupid thing you do, to fight back at a school resource officer, is going to land you in a juvenile detention center, and it’s not fair.”

*“Handcuffs with black background” by JobsForFelonsHub is licensed with CC BY 2.0.*

Though Coogan says McClellan’s bills are steps in the right direction, he believes that more still needs to be done.

“If you think about all the money and time spent on school resource officers — who are like cops — we need to stop thinking about having cops in school,” Coogan said. “What if we had five times as many guidance counselors — people with training to intervene? What if we had five times as many programs to keep kids engaged after school?”

McClellan agreed with Coogan, and said it starts with how adults in school treat kids. She pointed to cases in which kids with autism or other disabilities are treated unfairly or disciplined by adults who have no idea how to interact with them.

“Everyone in the school building that interacts with kids, but especially school resource officers and school board members who ultimately make decisions about the code of conduct and discipline, need to have basic training on child brain development,” McClellan said.

Written by Brandon Shillingford and Anya Sczerzenie, Capital News Service. Top Image: “Prison Bars Jail Cell” by JobsForFelonsHub is licensed with CC BY 2.0.

In the wake of heightened suicide rates, school shootings and rising teen depression, Virginia, along with New York, has taken a huge step in becoming the first to require mental health education in schools.

SB 953 mandates mental health education be incorporated into ninth and 10th-grade classes to “recognize the multiple dimensions of mental health.”

The current Health Standards of Learning include mental health in grades seven through 10. However, the learning standards for ninth and 10th grade simply require the identification of mental health resources, both within the school and within the community. Now, classrooms will incorporate mental health awareness, training and more multifaceted education of mental health into health curriculum.

“It’s important that young people know some fundamentals about mental health,” said Virginia Senator Creigh Deeds, who proposed the bill. “It’s important to let mental health issues be given the same dignity as physical health issues.”

Deeds proposed the bill after a group of high school students from Albemarle County brought the legislation to him. Alexander Moreno, Lucas Johnson, and Choetsow Tenzin sought to break the stigma surrounding mental illness.

“[Moreno, Johnson, and Tenzin] are very young people who have seen some of their classmates struggle,” Deeds said. “They know the pressure that young people are under. They’ve seen bullying, they’ve seen depression…They’ve even known friends who’ve died by suicide.”

But Deeds has his connection to the legislation in more ways than one. His son, Austin “Gus” Deeds, was taken to a hospital in 2013 for a mental health evaluation, after stabbing his father, but had to be released because no psychiatric beds were available in the western part of Virginia. Gus took his life the next day. Deeds later said Virginia’s system failed his son.

“My son was a beautiful kid,” Deeds said. “He was one of the brightest, most capable people I’ve ever known, and I miss him like you wouldn’t believe. But that’s why I have to continue to work to ensure people have quality l{of} ife and ensure people get the help they need in every part of Virginia.”

Deeds’ bill plans to create a space to allow students to have open discussions about the fundamentals of mental health issues that may arise for ninth and 10th graders. The legislation will require the Virginia Board of Education to create a new curriculum including thorough, expansive mental health material.

Statistically, half of all chronic mental illnesses start by the time a person turns 14 and 75 percent of them have occurred by the time a person turns 24. Of the children between the ages of eight and 15 who suffer from a mental illness, only half received care in the last year. Mental health conditions affect a significant number of adults in the U.S., as well. Nearly 20 percent, or one in every five people, experience mental illness each year.

“This is a great opportunity to talk about human development and brain development, particularly in teenagers because they’re experiencing it,” said Bela Sood, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at VCU. “The curriculum needs to emphasize the notion of how emotions are governed by biology. We all have mental health, and when we talk about wellness it isn’t just physical.”

Sood said awareness and intervention are necessary for starting conversations about mental health.

“Mental health issues have a impact on physical health issues and vice versa,” Sood said. “The curriculum will need to put the two together in a way that gets that idea across.”

Legislation to better incorporate education, awareness, and resources on mental health into high school classrooms could not come at a better time, as the nation has seen spikes in mass shootings, suicide rates, and depression.

Currently, suicide sits as the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., and for people between the ages of 15 and 24, it is the second leading cause, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide rates have increased more than 30 percent in the last two decades, as the U.S. lost nearly 45,000 lives to suicide in 2016.

Cindy Anderson, Richmond resident, and mother of two said the legislation is a major step in the right direction, but not the entire solution. From what she’s seen at her children’s schools, she thinks bullying is the root of several problems, especially the heightened school shootings, and needs to be addressed through the new curriculum.

“Kids are at their most vulnerable age in middle school and high school,” Anderson said. “I don’t know if the schools handle it correctly…I’m not sure.”

Anderson said she recently saw a bullying incident dealt with at one of Richmond’s schools. The two children were brought into the office, one crying with scratches on his face and his glasses broken. She noticed administrators were paying more attention to the bully rather than the child who was bullied.

“They need to have some sort of setup or intervention to take care of what happened to the kid that’s bullied,” Anderson said. “Rather than just suspending or sending home the person that is the bully. I’ve seen [bullying] at my son’s school and it takes a toll on some kids.”

As of May 2018, there have been 23 school shootings where someone was either injured or killed. Anderson said for her, it isn’t just a gun control issue–it has to do with mental health and bullying. She advocates for more preventive measures.

“As long as [schools] teach kids to be inclusive, it can help avoid kids from getting to a point where they’re already depressed,” Anderson said. “Little kids are afraid. There’s so much pressure on them.”

The Virginia law mandates the Board of Education to update the current Health Standards of Learning to create a more comprehensive curriculum. Deeds said he hopes to see something in place by the start of this coming school year.

“I want the stigma surrounding mental health to dissolve. I hope this will encourage people who need help to seek help,” Deeds said. “There is no health without mental health.”

New Virginia Laws Seek to Close ‘School-to-Prison Pipeline’

Virginia Among First to Require Mental Health Education in Schools