LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Tamicko Glover recalled when her son was kicked out of his Clark County school last December, she said he was wrongly expelled.
“I felt like the expulsion was an error. You didn’t give us an opportunity. I felt it was like retaliation,” she said.
Glover shared her story of her son’s discipline, it comes at a time when Nevada lawmakers are looking to revise how students are disciplined in the classroom.
According to data for the 2021/2022 school year from the Nevada Department of Education, Hispanic students made up 44% of the population enrolled in state schools.
They’re also the highest group of those suspended and expelled, at 37% and 39% respectively.
Yet, a discrepancy among Blacks is concerning to some groups.
Black students only represent one in 10 students.
But, about a third of them were expelled and suspended.
Those numbers were 32% for suspension and 38% for expulsions.
“There’s a problem,” Glover said. “It’s late to be addressed, but it needs to be fixed immediately. It’s way overdue,” she said.
Glover’s son attends Carroll M. Johnston Middle School in North Las Vegas. An alleged altercation with a teacher led to his expulsion, according to documents.
“It’s winter break. This has happened, I can’t get anywhere. I’m not getting any help. My concerns are not being addressed. It’s this and this. ‘No, you need to do this, you need to do that’. And I’m like, ‘why am I not being taken seriously as a parent,’” she expressed.
Glover reached out to the Las Vegas Alliance of Black School Educators (LVABSE) for assistance. A few weeks later in January, Glover’s son was reinstated.
“Parents should be able to go to a school, ask for their child’s documents, ask for support, and get the support that they need, without having to call outside advocates,” Kamilah Bywaters, the president of LVABSE, said.
Earlier this month, LVABSE accused a white teacher at Johnston of using an offensive, racist remark.
Bywaters said issues like this are why she’s against reforming the restorative justice law, which was passed to curtail the disproportionate numbers.
“In our state, we have a high number of students who are disciplined, disproportionately, and that number of students usually impacts Black children,” Bywaters said.
The Nevada Department of Education supports revisions to the current statute.
Restorative justice emphasized interventions, such as writing an apology letter, rather than suspension or expulsion as discipline.
“Nobody wants to suspend and expel. Nobody wants to see discipline disparities occur in our schools, and we also need to make sure that school safety for our staff and our students is paramount,” Christy McGill said. She’s the director of the Office for a Safe and Respectful Learning Environment at DOE.
Data from the 2017/2018 school year, before the restorative justice law passed, shows that 41% of black students were expelled, while it was 37% of Hispanics.
The Clark County School District shared a statement in regards to the Johnston Middle School incident.
It says, “school administration became aware of an incident on our campus that involved communication that contained racial implications. School administration is diligently investigating.”
Governor Joe Lombardo is planning to introduce a bill on changing restorative justice.
Four Republicans in the state senate have introduced their own version of a bill to reform the law.
