City Must Fix Racial Disparity In School Suspensions: Advocates

NEW YORK — Stark racial disparities in how New York City's public school students are punished moved advocates and lawmakers to call for school discipline reforms Tuesday.

Black students were suspended longer than students of other races for eight of the 10 most common infractions in the 2016-17 school year, according to a recent report by the city's Independent Budget Office. Their suspensions were about twice as long as students in another ethnic group for three infractions, the report shows: Bullying, reckless behavior and altercation.

The harsher treatment makes it harder for black and brown students to learn, especially given that schools lack enough guidance counselors and social workers to address the issues kids face, advocates and lawmakers said.

"Minority students are being unequally subjected to school discipline practices that are racially biased, ineffective, unnecessary and often times do more harm than good," City Councilman Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn) said at a Tuesday rally outside City Hall.

"What good is any student being sent home do(ing) for them?" he added. "They’re not being educated, they’re not learning. Instead they’re building up anxiety, fear."

Reynoso was among 18 members of the Council's Progressive Caucus who called for a "comprehensive plan" to address racial inequities in student discipline in a Tuesday letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.

The city should reduce the length of suspensions, eliminate suspensions altogether for insubordination, and end the use of arrests and summonses for low-level offenses in schools, the lawmakers wrote.

The disparities have emerged in a school system that employs more NYPD school safety agents than guidance counselors and forces students to go through metal detectors before they get to class, advocates and lawmakers said.

"When we make a mistake as students, they suspend us, they arrest us, they make it extremely difficult for us to get back on track and get to doing what is the right thing," said Malachi Davidson, a youth leader with the Urban Youth Collaborative.

Suspending kids only moves them into the "school-to-prison pipeline," said Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens), who chairs the Public Safety Committee. The DOE should add guidance counselors and social workers and focus less on the "punitive process" that won't resolve social issues, he said.

The DOE puts $47 million annually toward mental health supports and "school climate" initiatives, an investment that's helped drive down suspensions 34 percent, department spokeswoman Miranda Barbot said.

Additionally, school safety agents in high schools across the city can now give out a "warning card" instead of a criminal summons to students age 16 and older for low-level marijuana possession and disorderly conduct, the DOE said.

The department is also expanding training and support for restorative practices. One Brooklyn district that has such a program saw suspensions drop 25 percent in the 2016-17 school year, the DOE said.

"We recognize there is more work to do to address these national disparities at a local level, and we will review these recommendations and other important feedback from our students as we continue our work to improve school climate," Barbot said in a statement.

(Lead image: Malachi Davidson of the Urban Youth Collaborative speaks at a rally outside City Hall on Tuesday. Photo by Noah Manskar/Patch)