Racism and School Suspensions: What is Being Done?

A race whose students are six times more likely to be suspended outside of school; another race two times more likely. That is the tale of African-Americans and Hispanic/Latino Americans respectively at Las Lomas in the 2015-2016 school year (right); a racial disparity in statistics that can only be classified as concerning in the extreme requiring a strong response - a response that has indeed been met in numerous ways at both the statewide and local levels.

For example, the State of California has recently enacted legislation that prohibits suspensions at the first offense except those apart of the “big five” that warrant automatic suspension if they occur on school grounds or in a school-related matter: unauthorized firearm possession/sale, “brandishing a knife at another person”, illegal sale of drugs, committing or attempting to commit sexual assault, and possessing an explosive. Furthermore, administrators are now entirely prohibited from suspending students for defiance alone, “which is basically kids just being rude” to quote David Granzotto, an Associate Principal of Las Lomas; defiance was the “[offense] were you see the biggest disparity between races…[the suspensions] were incredibly [disproportionate]…black kids…got suspended for [Defiance]”.

Since 2015, Las Lomas High School has also implemented numerous administrative practices in an attempt to reduce racial disparity in school suspensions; the administration “has made a concerted effort to implement more restorative practices…[areas such as] student conflict” rather than purely punitive practices, an administrative change Granzotto believes to have slightly lowered the racial disparity in school suspensions and more generally has lowered the rate of school suspensions. Yet this administrative change is insignificant in comparison to other administrative changes that have been implemented: David Granzotto believes that the greatest change that has reduced the racial disparity is Beyond Diversity, a series of diversity trainings all Las Lomas administrators have required to attend. Such trainings allow administrators to “[recognize racial biases] and not acting on them…if I wasn’t in touch with my biases, or if I hadn’t gone through with these diversity training, maybe my suspension practices would be different…it’s about the people in the place, not necessarily any concrete policies put in place”.

However, despite such significant efforts to reduce racial disparities in school suspensions, Las Lomas continues to grapple with subconscious racism and its pernicious effects throughout the school’s disciplinary systems. In the previous school year, public records indicate that despite significant improvements in the school’s disciplinary policies, there remain minor but statistically significant racial disparities in school suspensions; while no African-American students were suspended at all (a significant change from the previous year’s very high rate of suspension), only 50% of suspended students were White while 63.7% of enrolled students were white.

The campus also continues to struggle with racism in other areas, a challenge recognized by interstate institutions such as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), the body responsible for accrediting all public schools in California and Hawaii, which stated in its report that: “There is a need for students who represent cultural diversity on campus to define and drive more robust and culturally responsive awareness to support school-wide equity.”

Yet struggles to attain true school-wide equity may never be totally accomplished, whatever the lengths to which the administration and community goes and whatever accomplishments may be achieved. “We all have biases…every human being, everyone in the world”, says David Granzotto. “It’s about recognizing them and not reacting to them.” “Having some awareness about discrepancies in how races are treated on campus…just being aware.”