Santa Ana Unified School District officials -- who as recently as five years ago were heavily criticized for being too quick to kick kids out of school for behavior problems -- are now being credited for a steep decline in out-of-school suspensions.
While school suspensions and expulsions declined statewide by more than 33 percent between the 2011-12 and 2014-15 school years, in Santa Ana suspensions dropped by 58 percent during the same time period,
The decline is due not only to a statewide shift in attitudes among educators about school discipline, but also a robust local effort by parents, students and community activists to push the school district to devote more funding to restorative justice and other support programs for students.
"A suspension is an indicator of a failing school," said Abraham Medina, program director for Santa Ana Boys and Men of Color, a group focused on empowering young men through organizing around issues like education, juvenile justice, restorative justice practices and deportation.
The largest decline was seen in suspensions for "willful defiance," a loosely defined category for disruptive behaviors that advocates have long said were disproportionately meted out to minorities. Those suspensions dropped from 3,300 in the 2011-12 school year to 721 in 2014-15.
To continue reading this article by Thy Vo, go to: http://voiceofoc.org/2016/04/n...drop-in-suspensions/
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