DOJ Signs Agreement With Agency of Ex-Deputy Who Tossed Girl
Source: Associated Press
The South Carolina sheriff's department whose deputy tossed a student across a classroom after she refused to give up her cellphone has agreed with the U.S. Justice Department to do its part in ending what the federal agency calls a "school-to-prison pipeline."
The settlement of a civil rights review comes as the American Civil Liberties Union sued South Carolina in federal court on Thursday over what it calls the criminalization of normal adolescent misbehavior. The lawsuit challenges the state's "disturbing schools" and "disorderly conduct" charges as unconstitutionally vague.
The sheriff of Richland County, Leon Lott, said Thursday that he agrees with the ACLU on these points. He called the "disturbing schools" charge commonly used against students a "terrible law" that has been "misused and abused."
Lott also said the agreement's requirement that officers be removed from any classroom management duty is a positive outcome from the videotaped confrontation last October at Spring Valley High in suburban Columbia.
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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/doj-signs-agreement-agency-deputy-tossed-girl-41301692
By SEANNA ADCOX, ASSOCIATED PRESS COLUMBIA, S.C. Aug 11, 2016, 9:10 PM ET
Akicita
(1,196 posts)Last edited Fri Aug 12, 2016, 01:17 PM - Edit history (2)
to the office for discipline. If they refuse to go and continue to disrupt the learning of others they should be forcibly removed from the classroom. Since some students resort to violence in these situations, teachers, especially in high school and maybe junior high, should not be responsible for physically removing disruptive students.
The by far overriding factor here is that students, especially in poor POC schools where these incidents are prevalent, who are there to learn because they realize their only way out of the poverty cycle is by getting an education have a right to a decent learning environment. That right to learn supersedes troublemakers' right to disrupt. The purpose of public schools is to provide an education for those who want it, not to babysit kids who could care less about an education and think they have a right to disrupt the education of others. Students in poor POC schools have the same right to a quality education as everyone else. That right by far supersedes the rights of the disruptors.
I fear the Justice Dept. has just struck a blow against the aspirations of those students who are there to learn by focusing on the rights of the disruptors instead of the greater goal of providing a quality education for all students who want it.
That said, a deputy should never throw a student across the classroom unless the student's actions are life threatening. Good that they agreed to more training.
I am against the ACLU on this one. I am all for any efforts to help disruptive students straighten themselves out but not at the expense of those kids that are striving to get an education which is so vital to POC kids in poor neighborhoods.
Improving the learning environment in poor performing POC schools should be a major area of action for the Clinton administration.