Dallas ISD: It's Time to Reimagine School Discipline

If you've been following along, you know I've grown very concerned about school discipline in Dallas ISD. As a Black male in Texas's K-12 system, I was never suspended (though I remember sitting in detention during my formative years as the class clown). Still, as a teacher, I have seen how we have failed Black students in this regard. 

My former student (we'll call him Kris) is who I think about when I am advocating for school discipline reform. Kris was one of seven Black students in our eight-person "Disposition Unit" at the school where I teach. One of these days, I will be able to explain what the hell a "Disposition Unit" is. In layman's terms, this was a group of students from across the district who had been diagnosed with some type of social-emotional “disorder" (some more BS I will discuss in a future blog) and were placed in this unit as a last resort. 

**social-emotional disorders absolutely exist and deserve ample funding and support. Still, I knew some of these students well and discovered they were just kids other schools didn't want on their campus.**

So over the year, I watched as ONE support staff member was in charge of supporting these eight students during each school day. She seemed stressed, lost, and from many of our conversations, utterly hopeless. And I don't blame her one bit, as I would have been too. She didn't have the support or training she needed to help these students or address the social-emotional trauma that they had experienced in their lives. 

Over the school year, I watched as these students digressed in their behavior and academics. That's right, not only were they unsupported, but the lack of support led to more behavior infractions, increases in absences, and for some, legal consequences outside of school. I still worry for them.

This was when I knew our district needed to do more to support the needs of all students, particularly ones they had seemingly given up on and excluded from the learning environment. 

Two of these students were my students, and not shockingly, I saw their brilliance the second I met them. Kris told me he wanted to be a "doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer" as a freshman, and every time I saw him, we would recite together "Doctor. Lawyer. Engineer". I'm not sure about you, but as a straight-A high school student, I couldn't tell you what an engineer was until I was in college. These students were brilliant, witty, and were walking deposits of untapped potential. The only thing was....they were forced to learn in a system that was fundamentally unprepared to support their needs. They had been the victims of anti-blackness, culturally UNresponsive teaching, and inequitable discipline policies that all but told them "we don't really want you here."

So when I heard that Dallas was planning to eliminate out-of-school suspensions, I knew this was a step in the right direction. Punitive discipline doesn't work. If you don't believe me, go look up the impact of the War on Drugs or the effect of Zero-Tolerance policies in schools. They don't work...they never have...they never will. 

So what does work, and what should this reimagined school discipline look like in Dallas ISD? Does it mean kids can do whatever they want without fear of the consequences? No. The state does mandate out-of-school suspensions for high-level infractions, so relax people. We aren't advocating for anarchy. I'm a teacher. I know that wouldn't work either. There being consequences for your actions isn't a life lesson I believe we should eliminate from our schools.

What it means, in essence, is to shift away from punitive discipline and toward restorative practices and culturally responsive pedagogy that is actually geared towards supporting and developing Black students. 

It means implementing positive-behavior systems on campuses that reinforce good behavior as opposed to merely punishing bad behavior. 

It means naming the racist mindsets that see Black students as criminal, violent, scary, or loud and addressing teachers' implicit biases when choosing who to write up and who not to. This happens when we train teachers on what anti-racist classrooms look and feel like instead of the four annual cultural intelligence trainings you can click through and mark as "complete."

It means prohibiting schools from kicking a kid out for three days because of "improper behavior in the classroom" or challenging the authority of the almighty teacher (insert dramatic music), and revising the district's Student Code of Conduct so that it does not mirror the Penal Code. 

Reimagining school discipline also involves allowing counselors to do their freaking jobs and actually support students instead of being swamped in clerical work for all hours of the day. If we're really trying to change things and if we really care about the fact that though 1 in 5 Dallas ISD students are Black, 1 in 2 of those receiving out-of-school suspensions is Black, we have to meet students where they are at. 

Many of our students come into school with trauma I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. We have to address that before we attempt to teach them the causes of the Civil War; suppose we want them to learn the material. In that case, the material has to be at least tangentially relevant to their lived experiences (so not The Great Gatsby, sorry to all you fans). 

You try and relegate a student's ancestral history to one week and see how motivated they are to learn history. Teach them about archaic principles that aren't relevant or useful and ask them how much they enjoy coming to school or paying attention to the lesson.

To Dallas ISD: I commend you for taking this step to reduce out-of-school suspensions, but if you want to truly create an equitable district, please don't stop there. Use your Racial Equity Office for what it was designed to do. Monitor and hold schools accountable for practicing discipline equitably and supporting the socio-emotional needs of all students. If you don't take the extra steps necessary, don't expect the Discipline Gap to shrink just because kids can't be kicked out of school for not wearing the right clothes or cutting up to a culturally insensitive teacher. I work in your district...trust me, we will find a way to continue doing what we're doing if you allow us to. 

If you've read this far, that means that what I am saying may not seem like total BS to you. If that's true, I urge you to join us in our advocacy and put pressure on our School Board to truly bring equity to our district.