Stop K-5 school suspensions, protesters urge
During the 2015-16 academic year, Pittsburgh Public Schools students in kindergarten through fifth grade missed 3,160 days because of out-of-school suspensions, a recent study found.
Of those, 65 percent were for “disruption of school,” and more than half were for “minor, nonviolent offenses,” according to the report by advocacy groups Education Rights Network and One Pennsylvania.
More than 60 parents, educators and community members rallied Monday night in front of the district administration
building in Oakland to urge the district to adopt a policy that would do away with the disciplinary practice they say keeps its youngest learners out of school and disproportionately affects students of color.
Specifically, they want the nine-member school board to eliminate K-5 suspensions for students accused of nonviolent offenses.
Protesters wore signs with names of school board members across their chests, and others held signs saying “solutions, not suspensions,” “#rethinkdiscipline” and “Black Minds Matter.”
“I’m here today because this situation is a moral agenda, this is a moral issue,” said the Rev. Shanea Leonard, pastor of Judah Fellowship in the Hill District. “We can no longer allow our kids to be subject to a system that does not have them in mind, a system that is not a pipeline to the promise but a pipeline to prison, a system that is not a pipeline to produce potential but a pipeline to poverty.”
On June 12, advocates for the removal of K-5 suspension interrupted a school board workshop to present a petition signed by more than 600 people in support of the proposed ban, said Pamela Harbin, who has two boys in the school district, is cofounder of the Education Rights Network and the organizer of Monday’s rally.
Every year, the school district reviews its discipline policy. On Wednesday, the board will vote on possible changes related to suspensions.
A January report by the Council of the Great City Schools — an analysis commissioned by the district — recommended the Student Code of Conduct be revised to eliminate suspensions for grades K-2 when threats to student safety were not involved. But the Education Rights Network wants that to be extended to fifth grade because the number of suspensions doubles from second to third grade alone, Ms. Harbin said.
“Those are the really critical years,” she said.
The findings from the consortium of the nation’s 70 largest urban school districts also revealed that Pittsburgh Public’s suspension rates are high compared with other city school systems and that its disciplinary actions disproportionately affect black students.
The Education Rights Network’s findings further supported that case, saying that students of color in grades K-5 were suspended four times as often as white students, and that students with disabilities, especially those of color, were much more likely to find themselves sent home.
And Pittsburgh Public Schools aren’t the only ones considering an overhaul to the practice. A proposal from two state legislators would require districts to use approaches such as “restorative practices” — which allows students to make things right post-conflict while staying in school — to “prevent the recurrence of the behavior that led to” getting kicked out of school.
After the rally Monday, 45 people spoke at the board’s regularly scheduled public hearing, most talking about suspension policies. Some parents described the challenges of missing work to stay home with their suspended children.
“This is the place where students are required to be by law, it is the place where students should feel safe, supported and welcomed,” said Cheryl Kleiman, a staff attorney with the Education Law Center’s Pittsburgh office. “Instead, the message we’re providing to our youngest learners is that public education is not the place for them and that is a long-term lifetime harm.”