The Southern Poverty Law Center is taking not one (or two, or three, or four) but five Florida school districts to task over the districts' harsh school discipline policies under which students of color are disproportionately suspended, expelled and push out of school. And because why file a federal complaint against just one district when you can file against five, SPLC is brining the misguided and unfair policies before the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. 

The specific complaints from SPLC: 

• "In Escambia county schools, African-American students account for 65 percent of all out-of-school suspensions, but they represent only 36 percent of the student population.
• In Okaloosa county schools, African-American students account for 24 percent of all out-of-school suspensions even though they make up only 12 percent of the student population.
• In Bay county schools, African-American students account for 30 percent of all out-of-school suspensions even though they comprise only 15 percent of the student population.
• In Suwannee county schools, African-American students account for 31 percent of all out-of-school suspensions, but represent only 14 percent of the student population.
• In Flagler county schools, African-American students account for 31 percent of all out-of-school suspensions even though they are only 16 percent of the student population."

The crucial point to understand about these discipline policies is that not only are they disproportionately affecting students of color, they're pushing these students out of school and increasing the likelihood that they drop out of school altogether and become involved in the juvenile justice system. The school-to-prison pipeline is no joke. (Just look at this recent example from Mississippi.) 

In SPLC's press release, staff attorney Stephanie Langer explains it this way: “Unforgiving disciplinary policies are cutting short the futures of countless African-American students across Florida and the entire nation. If school districts truly want to provide a quality education to all of their students, they will reform these discriminatory policies.”

In reforming school discipline policies, we need to focus on keeping students in the classroom and providing them with the supports they need to address the underlying reasons for the misbehavior rather than pushing them out of school. 

To learn more about the school-to-prison pipeline, check out the OTL Campaign's school discipline toolkit here.

Also check out the Dignity in Schools Campaign's facts sheets and resources on school pushout here.