The Missing Seat Editorial
When Discipline Is Not Equal
A school is supposed to give every child a fair chance.
An investigation by the New Mexico Department of Justice found large racial differences in discipline at Gallup-McKinley County Schools.
According to the investigation, Indigenous and Hispanic students were suspended more often and for longer periods than White students accused of similar behavior.
Indigenous students lost eight to ten times more classroom days to suspension than White students. Hispanic students lost three to four times more.
The district serves communities across part of the Navajo Nation and has the largest Native American student population of any U.S. public-school district.
A suspension is lost education
Suspension is not merely a punishment recorded in a file. It removes a child from class.
Every suspended day is a day of instruction lost. Repeated suspensions can cause students to fall behind, disconnect from school and miss services they receive on campus.
If similar behavior produces different punishment depending on the student, the discipline system is not equal.
That does not mean schools should ignore dangerous behavior. Teachers and students deserve safety. It means discipline rules should be clear, comparable cases should receive comparable responses and differences should be investigated.
How do unequal systems hide?
A school rule may use the same words for everyone while leaving staff members broad freedom to decide what counts as disrespect, defiance or disruption.
Those judgments can be influenced by stereotypes, even when no one openly announces racial bias.
That is why good data matters. Schools should compare who is disciplined, for what behavior, by whom, for how long and what happened in similar cases involving other students.
The New Mexico investigation followed reporting by New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica. The state attorney general called for clearer standards, better oversight, stronger data collection and protections against racial discrimination.
Who had power and who carried the burden?
Adults created the rules and decided the punishments. Children lost the classroom time.
Parents may be forced to miss work or find emergency childcare. Teachers later have to help students recover missed lessons. The entire community carries consequences created by unequal decisions.
Why should an ordinary person care?
School discipline can shape a child’s educational future. It affects grades, graduation, trust in adults and whether a student feels that school is a place where they belong.
Unequal discipline also teaches every child watching it what the institution believes fairness looks like.
Pull Up a Chair
Parents and community members should ask school boards to publish discipline data by race, type of offense, length of punishment and school.
Do not accept percentages without comparisons. Ask whether students accused of similar conduct received similar consequences.
Schools should also create clear appeal procedures and include students and families in reviewing discipline policies.
Children should not have to lose months of education before adults decide to examine the pattern.
Who is missing?
Ally = Action. 🪑