PHOTO/JEFF PALMER

Activists applaud during a rally held by One Network for Education Charlotte Tuesday at the Government Center. ONE Charlotte is lobbying Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to develop community-based programs as an alternative to suspension. African Americans make up 41 percent of CMS enrollment but account for 77 percent of suspensions during the 2013-14 school year.

Education activists want Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to develop alternatives to suspension.

One Network for Education Charlotte wants the district to commit to the creation of a board of experts to develop “restorative justice” practices at schools with high suspension rates. ONE Charlotte held a press conference on Tuesday to lobby the school board and Superintendent Ann Clark to back the proposal, which organizers say will improve school discipline and reduce dropout rates.

“We’re asking the school board to partner with ONE Charlotte to develop a smart, intentional, comprehensive plan,” organizer Charlene Mack said.  

African Americans make up 41 percent of CMS’s enrollment but accounted for 77 percent of suspensions during the 2013-14 academic year, according to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. Black boys accounted for more than 19,000 of CMS’s 24,121 short-term suspensions while their white counterparts accounted for 2,000.

District suspensions were down by more than 11,000 from the 2012-13 mark of 35,822 – the largest drop in North Carolina. Suspensions are often a catalyst for dropouts as at-risk students are more likely to be kicked out of class and fall farther behind academically. Mack said ONE Charlotte activists have talked to CMS officials, parents and advocacy groups to develop a more robust intervention strategy. A one-size-fits-all approach to discipline, she insists, won’t work on every campus.

“We’ve spoken to school board members, we’ve literally had hundreds of conversations,” said Mack, a former teacher at Ransom Middle School. “You can’t go into a community and say ‘This is what you need.’ All of this is community-driven.”

CMS Chief of Staff Earnest Winston said the district welcomes ONE Charlotte’s involvement. CMS already works with law enforcement and other agencies to develop intervention programs.

“CMS has partnered for two years with Race Matters for Juvenile Justice, which includes the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and other law enforcement agencies, the Council for Children's Rights, Mecklenburg County, juvenile court judges, the District Attorney's office, Department of Social Services and Youth and Family Services,” Winston wrote in an email.

“Our partnership has focused on enhancing the CMS Code of Student Conduct handbook, placing greater emphasis on interventions that reduce the need for out-of-school suspensions and creating a diversion program for first-time student arrests.”

CMS also works with community groups, Winston-said and has taken steps to eliminate cultural bias that could lead to suspensions, especially those of black students.
“All principals, along with our Executive Staff, school resource officers and members of the Board of Education, will attend Dismantling Racism training by the beginning of the 2015-16 school year,” Winston wrote. “We are piloting a restorative justice program and providing implicit bias training in a high school feeder pattern.”

Molly Shaw, executive director of Communities in Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, declined comment on ONE Charlotte’s initiative citing a meeting scheduled for next week, but supports keeping students in school and on track for graduation.

“Communities In Schools believes strongly that student attendance is critical to student success in school and life,” she wrote in an email. “We are supportive of programs that help ensure every student’s presence at school and commitment to education and believe that such programs are most effective when supported by all educational stakeholders – district personnel, school leadership, teachers, school partners and families.”

The restorative justice ideal emphasizes treating disruptive students with respect and reintegrating them to the classroom through constructive behavior.

“There’s a bunch of different models around the nation. One type is peer mediation; another is coordinators or intervention staff. Another is called peace circles. It sounds really hippie, but it’s really productive when it comes to getting to the root of the issue instead of just suspending kids just because.”

Intervention is more likely to reverse discipline and dropout issues, Mack argues.

“You’d be surprised how much having a relationship will help impact that child’s life as well as help him or her academically,” she said.

Mack said ONE Charlotte has conducted 20 meetings across Mecklenburg County over the last month. The next step is getting the district to buy in on restorative justice as a concept and program.

“We’re literally asking CMS to step out and make a public commitment,” she said.

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