NC GOP wants to strengthen school discipline but some say change may harm Black students

North Carolina Republican lawmakers want to toughen how school discipline is handled, but Democrats warn that a change could lead to more minority students being suspended and dropping out.

The N.C. House approved legislation on Thursday that removes language from state law listing violations not serious enough for a long-term school suspension. That includes inappropriate language, noncompliance, dress code violations and minor physical alterations.

Republican lawmakers argue that including those four examples in state law has hamstrung principals, causing them to be reluctant to discipline students. They want the long-term suspensions to be reserved for behavior that “threaten the safety of students, staff or school visitors or threaten to substantially disrupt the educational environment,” according to an overview of the changes.

“We should never be in a position where we’re condoning bad language, disrespect for teachers and administrative staff, altercations with other students as just being a write-off, a minor event,” said Rep. John Torbett, a Gaston County Republican and primary sponsor of the bill.

“That has led to a bad, bad disservice for a decade to the kids who have been in our K-12 system.”

Those four examples were added to the law in 2011 in a bipartisan effort to reduce long-term suspensions of more than 10 days. The belief was that if students were in school more, they’d be less likely to have poor grades and drop out when they fell behind.

But Rep. Graig Meyer, a Chapel Hill Democrat, said removing those infractions ultimately will have a negative effect, particularly on students of color.

He tried unsuccessfully to introduce an amendment Thursday to restore the language listing the four examples.

“We believe that without this guide rail, the suspension rates, the long-term suspension rates, more than 10 days, will start to go back up for poor kids, Black kids, brown kids, students with disabilities, the most marginalized kids,” Meyer said.

Rep. Kandie Smith, a Pitt County Democrat, added that teachers are more likely to suspend Black students than white students for the same infraction.

Torbett said Meyer’s amendment would gut the bill.

House Bill 247 was approved 66-49 on partisan lines. All Republicans voted yes and all Democrats voted no.

The bill now goes to the Senate. The bill didn’t get enough support Thursday to override any potential veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

Backlash over drop in suspensions

Short-term suspensions in North Carolina’s public schools dropped 24% between the 2010-11 school year, when the violations were added to the law, and the 2018-19 school year. Long-term suspensions have dropped 78% in that time period.

North Carolina’s drop also coincides with a nationwide drop that came after the U.S. Department of Education sent guidance in 2014 warning school districts they could be investigated if minority students are suspended at disproportionately high rates.

The Trump Administration rescinded the 2014 guidance, citing a study commission report that found it “has likely had a strong, negative impact on school discipline and safety.” Some North Carolina Republican lawmakers have the same concerns.

Torbett said Thursday that the 2011 changes “condoned foul language, disrespect for teachers, disrespect for administrative staff.”

“We have a chance to claw this back and make our kids the best that they can possible be in every aspect,” Torbett said.

Bill called unfair to Black students

Democratic lawmakers pointed to how Black students received 54.9% of all short-term suspensions, even though they made up 24.8% of the state’s student population. The Southern Coalition for Social Justice says Black students were 3.9 times more likely to receive a short-term suspension than white students in North Carolina, The News & Observer previously reported.

Pitt said removing the wording about not giving long-term suspensions for subjective offensives such as dress code violations, inappropriate language and disrespect will disproportionately impact minority students.

“What is disrespect? Because what you consider to be disrespectful could be very different from what another person considers to be disrespectful,” Smith said. “You are not their parents. That’s the part for them to do.”

Rep. Amos Quick, a Guilford County Democrat, said lawmakers aren’t condoning bad behavior in opposing the bill. He said they’re trying to find a way to teach students while recognizing how different they are nowadays.

“There’s a generation coming behind us who is going to change the way the society operates,” Quick said. “We have to be in touch with that generation — not destroy their spirit.”

Torbett argued, though, that his bill will help show students how they need to behave properly.

“We all know that the next generation will change the social fabric of America,” Torbett said. “But it’s our duty and our responsibility to teach them, just like our grandparents and our parents taught us, what’s acceptable in society, what’s acceptable to be a positive, productive member of society. This bill does that.”