Civil Rights Leaders Urge CA Governor to Address Inequities in School Discipline

August 15, 2013

NATION'S TOP CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS SEND LETTER 

TO GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN: 

TIME IS NOW TO END SCHOOL SUSPENSION GAP

CALIFORNIA--The nation’s top civil rights leaders from across the country signed a letter to California Gov. Jerry Brown urging him to stand with them in addressing the inequities in school discipline and sign Assembly Bill 420, authored by Assembly Member Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento). AB 420 would help ensure that out-of- school suspension is a measure of last resort in response to minor offenses, and will eliminate disruption/willful defiance as a ground for expulsion for all grades and as grounds for suspension for our youngest children in grades K-5.

Statewide data shows that black students receive 7.7 more suspensions per 100 students than white students, and students with disabilities receive 3.3 more suspensions per 100 students than students without disabilities.

In some school districts the racial gaps are much greater. For example, in Coalinga-Huron Joint Unified District in 2011-12, the rates for disruption/defiance are 44 out-of-school suspensions per 100 enrolled blacks students, 27 per hundred Latino students and 16 per hundred white students.

“The state numbers only tell half of the story of profound injustice found at the local levels along the lines of race and disability status,” said Dan Losen, Director, Center for Civil Rights Remedies,
The Civil Rights Project at UCLA. “Local control should not be allowed to trump the need for state action when schools and districts suspend children of color and students with disabilities at incredibly high rates in the most subjective and minor offense category of disruption and willful defiance.”

The letter states: “[G]iven the civil rights implications of frequently suspending these subgroups, we believe that objections to these proposed limits based on deference to local control are unjustified. Local control has historically been an obstacle to civil rights protections.... Ultimately, signing AB 420 into law will translate into higher achievement and improved graduation rates for all children, but especially help the subgroups that are too often entirely excluded from school because of minor school code infractions.”

The letter to Gov. Jerry Brown was signed by:

• Reverend Jesse L. Jackson 
• Eva Paterson, President, Equal Justice Society 
• Cruz Reynoso 
• Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice 
• Dennis Parker, ACLU National’s Racial Justice Director 
• Chris Edley, Jr., Dean of UC Berkeley School of Law and Director of the Chief Justice Earl
  Warren Institute 
• Barbara Arnwine, President and Executive Director, Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under
  Law 
• Dan Losen, Director, Center for Civil Rights Remedies, Civil Rights Project at UCLA 
• Susan Henderson, Executive Director of Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund 
• Hernán Vera, President and CEO, Public Counsel 
• Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel, MALDEF 
• Dolores Huerta, President, Dolores Huerta Foundation 
• Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children’s Defense Fund 
• John Jackson, President, Schott Foundation 
• Hector Villagra, Executive Director, ACLU of Southern California 
• Abdi Soltani, Executive Director, ACLU of Northern California 
• Jennifer Rodriguez, Executive Director, Youth Law Center 
• Paula Pearlman, Executive Director, Disability Rights Legal Center 
• Stewart Koh, Co-Founder and President, Asian Pacific American Legal Center 
•  John O’Toole, Director, National Center for Youth Law 
• Professor John C. Brittain, David A. Clarke School of Law 
• Sherrilyn A. Ifill, President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund,
  Inc. 

Studies show that just one out of school suspension make it five times more likely that a child will drop- out of school and three times that a student will end up in the juvenile justice system, within the same year. AB 420 encourages the use of research-proven alternatives that keep students in school and support healthy behavior, increased academic achievement, and positive school climates for all students.

###