In 2014, 12-year-old Mikia Hutchings, a student in Georgia’s Henry County School District was threatened with expulsion for writing the word “Hi” on a locker room wall. After her grandmother protested she was sentenced to suspension.
A Florida school in 2013 threatened 12-year-old Vanessa VanDyke with expulsion for not cutting her natural hair. They called it a distraction.
The PSGE report recommends first and foremost doing away with zero tolerance school discipline policies which were supposedly established to create safer learning environments for all students.
However these policies are often enacted through rigid practices and predetermined consequences that greatly limit discretion in individual cases, usually remove students from schools, and occasionally involve law enforcement personnel.
The Black Girls Matter report calls for the development of policies and programmatic interventions that address the challenges facing Black girls and other girls of color. Their recommendations – developed from interviews with young women directly affected by contemporary school policies and with stakeholders invested in their futures – are as follows:
*Develop protocols that ensure student’s rights to learn in an environment free of sexual harassment and bullying.
*Review and revise policies that funnel girls into the juvenile justice system.
Devise programs that identify the signs of sexual victimization in order to support girls who have been traumatized by violence.
*Advance and expand programs that support girls who are pregnant, parenting or otherwise assuming significant family responsibilities.
Article Appeared @http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_102835.shtml