President Trump has signed an executive order that would encourage stricter school discipline and discourage schools from considering the impact of discipline policies on students of color. It is yet another confirmation that this administration is determined to undo the civil rights protections of our students. In response to the order, Education Justice Alliance’s Executive Directors, Jenice Ramírez-Garvin and Letha Muhammad, have released the following statement:
This executive order hits right at the heart of Education Justice Alliance’s mission to dismantle the policies and procedures that enable the school-to-prison and school-to-deportation pipelines. Systemic bias results in the behavior of Black, Brown, LGBTQ+ students, and students with disabilities being viewed as criminal or egregious, regardless of the child’s age or special needs. It reinforces a punitive and unjust approach to student misbehavior and is particularly harmful for Black and Brown youth because they are already perceived as “older” or more “dangerous” than their white peers.
President Trump’s order calls for the creation of regulation that would ignore years of data showing that students who are Black, Brown, or have a disability are disciplined at much higher rates than their peers. For the 2023-2024 school year, North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction reported.…
Black students, students with disabilities, male students and students identifying with two or more races had the highest rates of in-school suspensions per 1,000 students among the various student subgroups
Black students, American Indian students, students with disabilities and male students had the highest rates of alternative learning placements per 1,000 students
Of the total 730 long-term suspensions reported for the entire state, 15% were students with disabilities and Black students received this punishment more than other races, with males more often than females
Forcing schools to shift away from conscious efforts to protect youth impacted by systemic racism and inequity is a deliberate attempt to shift blame onto students rather than addressing biased discipline systems that ostracize our children. We reject this framing and affirm that all students deserve safety, care, and opportunity, not surveillance and exclusion.
EJA envisions a relationship-centered public school system with safe, healthy and nurturing environments, where every student has the opportunity to reach their full potential. While the growth has been slower than we’d like, school districts across the state have made strides over the years to increase focus on mental health and whole child education. However, that work needs to continue to expand and deepen. In order to do that, Education Justice Alliance is calling on all school districts, in North Carolina and throughout the nation, to ignore this meritless executive order. Common sense tells us that we know the needs of our children and how to best provide them with the protections and education they deserve. EJA will continue to push schools to prioritize the work of preventing trauma, repairing harm, promoting healing, and rejecting a culture of punishment and criminalization so all students have access to a high quality public education.
