Every now and then I find a recommendation in an agenda that
I just cannot support. Last night there
were two such recommendations that I voted against, both dealing with student
discipline issues.
Over the last nine years on the board, I have seen much
inconsistency with respect to the punishments meted out to individuals, based
upon a variety of reasons. Although
minorities appear to be removed from school at a greater proportion than their
representation percentage would warrant, I have also seen that oftentimes these same students
receive far more “chances” than their non-minority peers get (# of major discipline referrals given), before they are eventually punished with removal from their school.
Last year I went through the statistics and
found some evidence of the trends I had seen but not previously verified.
Consistency is important, and following board
policy is important as well.
Minimizing some infractions and going the opposite direction and going overboard on other
rules transgressions is a big problem--- and two cases yesterday fall right into
this category.
Student “A” had a checkered past, racking up 10 discipline
referrals for major rules violations, fighting, threatening a board’s employee
with physical violence, numerous major class disruptions, dropping the "F" bomb in class frequently, and then he finally he
brought a bag of marijuana to school.
The
