School district proposes sweeping changes on tracking discipline
Concerns that police are called for disciplinary infractions involving minority children more often than whites at Santa Monica schools have sparked administrators to propose a series of sweeping reforms.
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy will ask the school board tonight to create a new tracking system that will document every time police are called to a school campus. If police are called, principals would be required to document the incident for the school district within 24 hours.
“The principal of each school shall ensure that board policies and regulations related to student discipline are observed by all school staff and that disciplinary rules are fairly and consistently enforced, without regard to race, creed, gender or sexual orientation,” the proposed policy states.
Principals also would be required to contact a child’s parents before the police are called, and to document what actions are taken by police officers.
“It will be the first time we would have a form for something like this,” said Laurel Schmidt, director of student services. “Every school will be reporting a police presence systematically.”
Though the forms themselves are confidential because they contain sensitive information about individual students, data from the forms would be compiled annually and released to the public, Schmidt said.
Deasy also is proposing teachers undergo regular training on the equitable enforcement of the school district’s discipline policies.
“We need to craft some immediate goals, along with intermediate and long-term goals,” Deasy said. “What we are proposing at the board’s meeting will deal with the immediate, but we still have much more work ahead of us.”
Recent student suspension data released by the school district’s Student Services Department shows black and Latino students were suspended at a much higher percentage rate than any other racial group last school year.
These two groups were also suspended disproportionately more than the percentage they constitute in the total student body. (see related story)
In response, a coalition of black and Latino residents calling themselves “Mothers for Justice” demonstrated at a June school board meeting because they believe their children are being unfairly disciplined because of their race.
Members of the organization are upset school administrators allegedly called police to deal with their children before ever contacting parents first.
In response, Deasy organized a 20-member Racial and Discrimination Task Force consisting of community members, school district officials and a representative of the Santa Monica Police Department to investigate the claims.
“I’m very open to looking into what are real problems and what may be perceived problems,” said school board president Julia Brownley. “They all deserve our attention and to be looked into fully.”
Mothers for Justice members said they will ask the school board to consider displaying a “Student Bill of Rights” in every school.
“Young people need to know there are consequences for their actions, but they also need to know they have some rights as well,” said Oscar de la Torre, a task force co-chair. “It’s a dual message — there’s rights but there’s also responsibilities.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 8, 2002. Read the original PDF.