Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass, announced her latest bill that is aimed at ending the discriminatory school discipline policies that target girls of color.
The bill which is dubbed The Ending Punitive, Unfair, School-Based Harm that is Overt and Unresponsive to Trauma Act,” seeks to bring to an end the “school to confinement pathway.” And according to media reports, they “would establish $2.5 billion in new federal grants for schools that commit to a set of measures aimed at overhauling the ways schools handle discipline. Schools receiving grants would have to agree to rewrite their discipline policies and include students, families, and communities in the process.”
‘When They See Us’ Is Snubbed By Golden Globes And Twitter Isn’t Having It
The success of this bill would see Schools having to centre their approach to student accountability. And this is essentially accountability in restorative practices and trauma-informed approaches. Pressley is giving special attention to the Pushout of Black girls, which happens to be one of the issues she has spent her career calling out.
On this issue, Essence writes, “According to the National Black Women’s Justice Institute (NBWJI), Black girls and other girls of color experience discriminatory, disparate, punitive, and unfair treatment in schools. Black girls are suspended, expelled, referred to law enforcement and arrested on school campuses at rates that far exceed the public school population as a whole, and that far exceeds their white peers. “
To many, this is a great move that is long overdue considering all the evidence that’s been pointing to unfairness. For instance, if you look at the 2018 Government Accountability report which found that despite making up only 16% of the student population, black students still made up 40% of the suspended students.
Source: Ayanna Pressley Wants To Stop Black Girls From Being Criminalized In Schools
Recent Comments