May 16, 2014 – by William Bender and Solomon Leach, Philadelphia Daily News – Fifth-graders have been sent to kindergarten. An eighth-grader was banished to first grade.
Draconian “behavior contracts” stipulate to whom certain children can speak and where they can eat breakfast.
These are among the incidents that have fueled concerns at Bache-Martin Elementary in Fairmount this year, and left parents asking: What has happened to our school?
March 31, 2014 – WHYY, Radio Times – New information released by the Department of Education shed more light on a disturbing difference when it comes to school discipline — minority students are suspended at a much higher rate than white students. The same applies to expulsions and harsher punishments and the problem is particularly acute in Pennsylvania. With more research to show that zero tolerance policies are ineffective, some educators are rethinking the whys and hows of school discipline.
WHYY’s Radio Times talks to Harold Jordan of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Deborah Klehr of the Education Law Center, and University of Pennsylvania education professor Matthew Steinberg about the issues around school suspensions, expulsions and even arrests, particularly when it comes to minority students.
March 25, 2014 – by Kevin McCorry, Newsworks – Philadelphia School District has directed school police officers to stop responding to calls related to Level 1 student conduct offenses. The proscribed violations range from “failure to follow classroom rules” to “truancy” to “verbal altercations” to “inappropriate touching/public displays of affection.”
November 20, 2013 – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – In the Nov. 15 article on the decrease in court referrals from Brashear High School (“Concerns Raised Over Brashear Discipline”), Magistrate District Judge James A. Motznik presents the wrong solution for the wrong problem. Instead of advocating for increased court referrals, local judges should be pushing for smart school climate reforms that dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline while making schools safer.
Read the complete letter:
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/letters/2013/11/21/A-criminalized-school-climate-is-the-wrong-path/stories/201311210127
November 13 , 2013 – On Wednesday, November 13th, the YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh honored the Education Law Center as its 2013 awardee for its Legal Racial Justice Award.
June 22, 2013 – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial –
Most student offenses should be dealt with by the school. Others are serious enough to refer to the legal system. But the Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Code of Student Conduct hardly seems to know the difference.
Read the full story:
http://www.post-gazette.com/editorials/2013/06/22/Class-project-The-city-schools-conduct-code-is-due-for-a-rewrite/stories/201306220114