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# Minority students facing greater rate of suspensions
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/minority-students-facing-greater-rate-of-suspensions/
- Published: 2002-08-08T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:36:02.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

*Task force investigates racial bias in area schools*

Recently released data indicates black and Latino children continue to be suspended at a fare greater rate throughout Santa Monica’s schools than white students.

Student suspension data released by the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s Student Services Department shows that students from both minority groups were suspended at a much higher percentage rate than other racial groups during the last school year.

The state requires the school district to submit the annual report to track middle and high school student suspensions, expulsions and criminal acts.

However, the numbers historically show minority students are suspended disproportionately more than the percentage they make up in the total student body.

For example, despite making up less than one-third of the total Santa Monica High School student body, Hispanic students still accounted for more than 40 percent of all students that were suspended last year.

And black students, who make up only 11 percent of the student body, were suspended 23 percent of the time.

At Lincoln Middle School, black students make up 12 percent of the population, but they were suspended 24 percent of the time. Latino students at the school make up 43 percent of the population, and they were suspended 62 percent of the time.

And at John Adams Middle School, black students were suspended 24 percent of the time while they make up only 12 percent of the student body. Hispanic students were suspended 62 percent of the time, while they constitute 43 percent of the student body.

“I’m always disappointed when I see the disparities,” said Oscar de la Torre, a local youth activist. “I see them, and I know there are problems.”

A task force, lead in part by de la Torre, is investigating concerns of racial bias in the school district’s disciplinary policies. Superintendent John Deasy will propose the first in a series of sweeping changes to the district’s disciplinary policies at tonight’s school board meeting.

Suspensions are used as a last resort after repeated or serious disciplinary infractions, school administrators said. Disobedience was the primary cause of suspension with 147 incidences, while fighting and possessing controlled substances were a close second with 93 and 54 incidences respectively. At Santa Monica High School, there was one sexual assault, 5 assaults on teachers and 7 incidences when students brought weapons to school. Seventeen students were suspended for obscenity and profanity infractions.

Though the school district does not have an official zero tolerance policy, students are automatically suspended and possibly expelled for bringing a loaded gun to school, brandishing a knife, selling illegal drugs or committing a sexual assault or battery, officials said.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 8, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080802.pdf?ref=smdp.com)