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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 2014)
October 8. 2014 $Ìnrtlanò (Oh ser Der Page 9 Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer W? welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Purpose is to Educate Not Exclude Children Decriminalizing school discipline by M arian W right E delman I believe the purpose of public schools is to educate not exclude children and to help identify and meet child needs, not make children serve adult convenience, self interest, and systems. So huge reforms are required in school discipline policies and practices across our nation as school pushout has wors ened in past decades w ith the criminalization of children at younger and younger ages aided and abetted by school expulsion and suspension policies which funnel children into the prison pipeline often crippling them for life. Nationally, the number of secondary school students suspended or expelled during a school year increased about 40 percent from 1 in 13 in 1972-73 to 1 in 9 in 2009-10 although we know suspen sions are more harmful than helpful to children. Schools with higher suspension and expulsion rates have worse school cli mates, lower student academic achieve ment, and are often less safe. Racially discriminatory school discipline policies contribute to the cradle to prison pipeline crisis with a black boy bom in 2001 having a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison in his lifetime and a Latino boy a 1 in 6 chance of the same fate. The March 2014 report from the U.S. Department of Educa tion Office for Civil Rights in cluded troubling findings on how unfair and excessive school dis cipline policies can be beginning as early as preschool. But there is some encourag ing news. Some school districts are sig nificantly reforming their discipline poli cies and, more fundamentally, how they view and treat children by moving away from harsh and exclusionary policies to ward more positive and restorative ap proaches that improve discipline outcomes and keep children in school. The Children’s Defense Fund applauds such school district actions and hopes that districts across the country will fol low. The Los Angeles Unified School Dis trict, the second largest in the country, has the largest school police force in the nation closely followed by New York. Of approximately 9,000 arrests and tickets issued to Los Angeles children in the 2011-12 school year, 93 percent involved black and Latino students. In May 2013, after years of struggle, community organizing, and advocacy by many organizations — the school board adopted sweeping policy reforms. It elimi nated suspensions for the subjective catch all category known as “willful defiance” and directed all district schools to imple ment PBIS (Positive Behavior Interven tions and Supports) and restorative justice programs to ensure students access to schools that reflect caring, inclusive, safe, and healthy learning environments. The district will stop issuing citations for most campus fights and many other minor infractions. School police will fol low a step-by-step formula that should result in students being referred to off-site counseling, mental health services, or other school- and community-based solutions for offenses that until now sent them to court or probation. Juvenile Court Judge Donna Groman said about the new protocol: “Juvenile court should be the last resort for youths who commit minor school-based offenses. The education system is better equipped to address behaviors displayed at the school level through restorative justice and other alternative means.” I agree with Judge Groman and applaud the Los Angeles district and hope we can promote their new policy both nationally and statewide as a model response. Youths with serious attendance problems are be ing sent to counselors instead of court rooms in a return to common sense. I have never understood why we exclude children from school for not coming to school rather than finding out why they Improve We’re all in this together by T iffany W illiams Lolita Lledo spends all day talking on her cell phone, texting, and checking her Facebook page, though not for the reasons you might think. As the associate director of the Pilipino Workers Center in Los Angeles, she relies on social net working to keep in touch with home care workers. These caregivers help seniors and people with disabilities to bathe, dress, and prepare food, allowing them to thrive in their own communities rather than go to nursing homes. Many of the people Lledo works with were nurses, teachers, and engineers in their home coun tries. Now they’re working long hours in isolation and typically earn only about $21,000 a year. Lledo’s group provides logisti cal and emotional support. It’s also organizing caregivers to im prove labor conditions in one of the nation’s most precari ous lines of work. The Fair Labor Standards Act ex empts their industry from minimum wage and over time protections. The “companionship exemp tion” dates back to 1974, a time when the kind of care workers do in homes nowadays was done in institutions. Last year the Depart ment of Labor finally issued new regulations — but delayed imple mentation until January 2015. Private home care agencies and other industry groups are lobby ing for an even longer delay and E d it o r : Wage Workers have sued the Department of La bor to permanently block the pro tections altogether. The International Franchise As sociation, which represents ev erything from 7-11 to KFC, is leading the charge. Why? Because home care happens to be one of the most profitable lines of work for franchises. Realizing how much they have in common, low-wage workers from a variety of industries are joining together to demand a liv ing wage, bringing many con sumers along with them. Organizers like Lledo have re alized that pitting workers against M ich a el L eighton E xecutive D irector : C reative D irector : Rakeem Washington P aul N e u feld t O ffice M anagf . r / C eassifieds : A dvertising M anager : crisis.” That’s because both sides of the working relationship are in trouble. Home care workers can’t afford to put food on the table, and seniors are already struggling to get Medicaid to cover all the hours of home care they need. Lledo and I work together through Caring Across Genera tions — a national effort to align worker rights, disability rights, and senior rights organizations into a unified campaign. We be lieve that most families would pay more if they could afford it. Consumer advocates say bet ter pay and working conditions in the industry would translate into less turnover and higher quality care. In the retail industry, big box stores pay so little that many workers stocking their shelves rely on public assistance pro grams like food stamps to cover their basic needs. That means taxpayers are actually subsidiz ing low wages for those work ers. The same is true for nearly half of all U.S. home care work ers. From coast to coast, low-wage workers are sparking change by getting consumers to join their efforts. Tiffany Williams works fo r the Global Economy Project at the Institute fo r Policy Studies. The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 2008 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVFD REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. The Portland Observer-Oregon s Oldest Multicultural Pub- ltcation-is a member of the National Newspaper Association-Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York. NY. and The West Coast Black Publishers Association Lucinda Baldwin Leonard Latin R eporter / P hotographer are not coming to school. We know what works and what doesn’t work for children and need to place the highest priority on keeping students in school, safe, and learning. Engaged stu dents and communities working with com mitted educators are showing that change is more than necessary — it’s possible. It is critically important that public schools entrusted with educating and preparing children for college, work and life stop feeding them into the juvenile and criminal justice systems with zero tolerance poli cies especially for nonviolent offenses like tardiness and truancy or catchall subjec tive offenses like disruption or disrespect. Denying a child an education is hardly in the child or society’s best interest. As our nation’s children become ma jority non-white in 2019, greater sensitiv ity and awareness of the children being taught is essential and precautions must be taken so that “differentness” of race, gender, culture, and special needs or gifts are better understood and respected. No child is expendable and every child deserves a right to learn and grow up to be the best they can be. We must increase the positive momentum that is building so once again schools educate children, help meet their individual needs and prepare them for the future. Marian Wright Edelman is President o f the Children's Defense Fund. Olivia Olivia aewS^portlaMserVfr.CQm CALL 503-288-0033 FAX 503-288-0015 ads@pprtlpn<lob5erv(r,cpnt subscriDtion@portlandobserver.com
