An Oregon school district is being accused of discriminating against students based on their race through its new discipline policy.
Portland Public Schools (PPS) introduced its “Student Support, Discipline & Safety” policy in November. Under the policy, behavioral support plans must consider a student’s “trauma,” “race” and “gender identity/presentation,” as well as whether “social emotional learning” and “restorative justice” are appropriate for them.
The policy further requires each PPS school to maintain a “School Climate Team,” tasked with participating in “ongoing training in implicit bias, antiracism and culturally responsive practices.” Additionally, it mandates that a teacher not be transferred to another location if doing so would “decrease the building’s percentage of minority teachers to less than the student minority percentage in the building” or decrease its percentage of transgender and nonbinary staff to less than 30%.
The complaint filed Thursday by advocacy group Parents Defending Education (PDE) argues PPS is only disciplining select students based on “immutable characteristics” through its approaches, including race. The group is asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate whether the practices are in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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