RTD story
Posted: Thursday, August 27, 2015 4:50 pm
By NED OLIVER AND TED STRONG Richmond Times-Dispatch
Activists pushing for a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions in public schools flooded public comment periods at school board meetings in Chesterfield and Henrico counties this week.
“I’m not trying to come out here from Richmond and tell you what to do,” said E. Martin Jewell, a former Richmond City Council member and current Richmond NAACP education committee chairman. “But you mess with my children, you mess with my soul.”
His statement Wednesday came after a string of comments calling on Henrico to do better and highlighting successful projects elsewhere. To balance the mood, the activists started their presentation with a trust circle, a sort of group hug involving the board members and the activists.
“Would you mind coming down as a School Board so we can just love you up?” asked Sheila Warren, an activist from Oregon, to get the board down off the dais for the
trust circle.
In Henrico public schools, blacks made up nearly 70 percent of students who got out-of-school suspensions, but they account for only 37 percent of the student body.
In Chesterfield, where blacks make up 27 percent of the student body, black students received 52 percent of out-of-school suspensions. Chesterfield also referred the most students to law enforcement of any district in the state. Of students referred to law enforcement, 55 percent were black.
Chesterfield officials told the group Tuesday that they had made progress on reducing the number of students referred to law enforcement since the data were collected. From the 2013-14 school year to the 2014-15 school year, the number of incidents the district reported to law enforcement dropped from 1,444 to 866, said Bob Talley, the district’s director of student conduct and pupil placement.
“We’re not where any of us want to be but, in the past several years, there’s been a marked reduction in incidents we’ve had to report to law enforcement,” said Talley, crediting behavioral programs initiated by the district.
Henrico has managed to sharply reduce the number of students suspended in recent years, though the proportion of suspended students who are black has remained stubbornly high. And the county has recently enacted a new code of conduct for students, designed to shift away from zero-tolerance-type rules.
Henrico’s police chief recently announced a plan to change the way juvenile arrests are handled countywide. He also has said school resource officers will no longer get involved in school discipline. He said they will be limiting themselves to safety issues.
School Board Chairman John Montgomery Jr. outlined many of the things the division is doing to reduce disparities in discipline and opportunity. He also thanked the activists.
“As you go home, please know that our hugs go with you,” he said.
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