Arkansas school district enters agreement in discipline suit

PINE BLUFF, Ark.—A Pine Bluff school district has entered into a consent agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in a lawsuit that began over 45 years ago involving the alleged discrimination of black students in administering discipline.

The agreement doesn't resolve the lawsuit, but requires that Watson Chapel School District take several steps. Those steps include transitioning away from exclusionary discipline and implementing positive interventions with students, The Commercial newspaper reported.

Mike Dennis, an attorney representing the district, said the DOJ and the district agreed to the consent order.

"The alternative would have been to have a trial," Dennis said. "It would have cost time and money. As with any compromise, everyone wins. This order was the product of several months of negotiations. We are not at all displeased with this order. It all comes back to the students."

The DOJ reviewed documents involving the district's disciplinary actions and visited the district in November 2015 to interview administrators and other employees. The agency concluded that during the 20142015 school year, the district expelled and suspended black students at rates significantly higher than white students.

The disparity is part of a longstanding desegregation lawsuit that began in 1970. The case has included the DOJ monitoring the district and eventually providing directives.

The district's school culture specialist, Dovie Burl, said in October that students were suspended for minor infractions, parents were not contacted before students received maximum penalty and that teachers were disrespecting students. He said the DOJ was providing the district with a starting point to resolve outstanding issues regarding student discipline.

The consent decree notes that during the site visit, the superintendent "was committed to replacing the district's use of punitive discipline as the primary reason to student misbehavior with more positive approaches, as part of an overall focus on improving student achievement."

Dennis said educators are already implementing most of the directives, and that the district would file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in three years, or possibly earlier.

"We are putting things into place," he said.