I have lived in Virginia my entire life and this where I figured out that I wanted to be a social worker. I have had life experiences that have shaped me into the person that I am today. But, there is one major incident that has shaped the way I view public schooling. Someone close to me was expelled for a physical altercation and of course I wrote a letter for his mother to try to overturn their decision. However, the school did not see it through our eyes and he was expelled from school.
School suspensions and expulsions are strongly correlated with children being involved in the juvenile justice system. During the 2015-16 school year, Virginia schools issued over 131, 500 out- of school suspensions to over 70,000 individual students. Majority of these suspensions were issued for minor offenses, with about 2/3 of all suspensions given for behavior offenses such as minor insubordination, disrespect, using inappropriate language, and possession of cell phones.
Legal Aid Justice Center has conducted research and has found 8 troubling facts.
1. Virginia schools continued to issue a huge number of out school suspensions.
2. The short terms suspension rate in Virginia has begun to increase.
3. Virginia schools continued issuing huge numbers of suspensions to very young students.
4. Virginia schools continued to issue most suspensions for relatively minor, non-violent offenses.
5. Virginia schools continued to disproportionately suspend African- American students.
6. Virginia schools continued to disproportionately suspend students with disabilities.
7. Disparities in suspension are especially pronounced when examining the overlap of race, sex, and disability.
8. The same school divisions have high suspension rates year after year.
Now how are we going to handle this problem?
