By Mikhail Zinshteyn, LA School Report, March 3, 2020
In one incident, a teacher grew frustrated with a student because he wouldn’t respond to her, not realizing that in the student’s Native American tribe, exhibiting silence is a sign of respect to an authority figure. As punishment, the student was denied recess. In another instance, a Native American student was accused of consuming drugs, interrogated by the police and subject to random searches for weeks after returning from a tribal ceremony that included the burning of sage.
These stories and others detail the limited awareness school officials can show about the cultures of Native American students, a group that’s likelier to be expelled in California, according to September figures tallied by researchers at San Diego State University and the Sacramento Native American Higher Education Collaborative (SNAHEC), which also collected the students’ stories. In fact, Native American boys are expelled at rates higher than any other student group in the state, the report finds.
The findings of the two groups, pulled from 2017-18 disciplinary data that schools self-report and share with the state’s department of education, shine a light on a student group often overlooked in conversations about justice and equity in California schools.
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