School District’s Investigation of Racial Profiling Is Underway

Hannah Heineman
Mirror staff writer

   The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s (SMMUSD) recently-formed Task Force on Racism and Discipline met twice last month to begin its investigation of allegations made by Mothers for Justice, an organization of Latino and African American parents. At the June 27 School Board meeting, the group alleged that District officials routinely discipline Latino and African American youths more harshly than Anglo students.
   The 25-member Task Force is made up of District officials and administrators, teachers, parents, representatives from the Santa Monica Police Department, local clergy and others from the community at large. Task Force co-chairs are Irma Carranza, Oscar de la Torre, Dolores Gonzalez, Ana Jara and Joe Quarles.
   At its July 29 meeting, the group called for “immediate action” when school opens in September in four key areas. First, it wants the District to review all cases of students facing serious criminal charges cited by Mothers For Justice to see whether they were treated fairly and the charges are justified. Second, it wants the District to document disciplinary incidents that call for police intervention more accurately and fully so that they can see whether children-of-color are being unfairly treated.
   Third, Task Force members called for more effective training of teachers and administrators in District disciplinary policies and cultural sensitively to prevent over reaction to children-of-color’s alleged disciplinary problems. Fourth, they want more parental involvement, because, according to co-chair de la Torre and others, it “is key to the discipline process.”
   Task Force member Reverend Ronald L. Williams of First AME Church by the Sea disagreed with his colleagues about which cases should be reviewed stating, “all the District’s disciplinary cases should be reviewed because if, in fact, there is a racial issue going on I want to hit it right on, but if there’s not, I don’t want us to create one.”
   The Task Force also reviewed statistics on suspension and expulsion rates of District students for the 2001-2002 school year and found that children-of-color were being suspended and expelled in much higher numbers than white students.
   Most of the people who spoke to the Task Force were either Mothers for Justice members or parents with similar complaints.
   Parent and School Board candidate Maxwell Brooks suggested that the District do psychological evaluations of prospective administrators prior to hiring them, as the Police Department does, because, based on his experience in the District, “some administrators [here] don’t have the psychological make-up to be in a position of authority over either children or other adults.” He went on to say that District administrators are “selectively administrating rules” and cautioned that, “we’re gonna have a Columbine right here because of administrators that abuse students.”
   Parent and former District employee Aurora Zepeda asked the Task Force rhetorically, “Where are the police records and social services [reports] for students who live north of Wilshire? They have their private doctors and they are not locked up unless they bring a gun to school.”
   The next meeting of the Task Force will be on August 12.