No Discipline, No Consequences for NY Students

After gaining significant traction in recent years, the liberals’ criminal justice reform agenda is now trying to essentially eliminate suspensions for disruptive children in New York City’s public schools to address claims of racial bias.

Indeed, the liberal agenda of coercing cash-strapped states into implementing criminal justice reforms that reduce punishments because punishments are “racist” has swept from prisons to elementary schools. As a 20-year low national crime rate encouraged liberals to push for early releases for incarcerated criminals, politicians and advocates cried out against the “racist” system that imprisons black men at higher rates than white men. And Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has incorporated these sentiments into her platform.

“It is easy to ban suspensions. It is much harder to do the real work so suspensions are no longer necessary.”

“People are crying out for criminal justice reform. Families are being torn apart by excessive incarceration. Young people are being threatened and humiliated by racial profiling. Children are growing up in homes shattered by prison and poverty,” Clinton said in July, according to her campaign website. “They’re trying to tell us. We need to listen.”

But whatever happened to listening to the voices of those adults — and now children — who obey the law and keep the peace?

Capitalizing on the fact that suspensions in its schools dropped 32 percent during the first half of the 2015-2016 school year — as crimes in schools also dropped, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration announced last week that it would be implementing a series of “climate initiatives” to make schools “safer, fairer, and more transparent.” After entering the second phase of the plan to end “overly punitive school discipline policies,” NYC schools and other partners will funnel $47 million toward changes meant to challenge “disciplinary disparities” between minority children and white children in a city where at least 70 percent of the students are black or Hispanic.

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“Students feel safest when lines of responsibility and rules are crystal clear. Today’s reforms ensure that school environments are safe and structured. The reforms also empower educators and families with more data and greater clarity on school safety policies,” de Blasio said in the press release. “In partnership with the [New York City Police Department], my administration will continue to monitor school safety data to ensure enduring reductions in disciplinary disparities while improving school safety citywide.”

Calling insubordination “historically a major factor in racial disparities,” the press release also heralds the 81-percent decline in “suspensions for insubordination” as an indication that racial disparities are narrowing. But in order to narrow the gap even further, de Blasio seeks to entirely eliminate suspensions for children in grades K-2 and replace them with “appropriate positive disciplinary interventions.”

De Blasio’s new initiatives through the NYC Department of Education (DOE) unsurprisingly have no shortage of praise from the liberal elite and NYC officials.

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“I am gratified that the DOE is taking this critical step in recognizing that young children’s challenging behaviors are indicators that they need support,” said Julia Zuckerman, Principal of Castle Bridge School in Manhattan, according to the press release. “Suspensions further marginalize and punish children who need to learn how to be included. This shift will encourage principals and teachers to focus on creating the kinds of meaningful social emotional programs that will in turn promote stronger learning communities for a wider range of children.”

But others warned of the dangers de Blasio’s initiatives could pose for the respectful and non-disruptive children if their “insubordinate” counterparts do not suffer appropriate consequences for their actions.

“In a perfect world, no child under the age of eight would ever be suspended, every child having a discipline crisis would have the proper interventions by adults, and every classroom would be a positive learning environment,” Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, wrote in a letter to Carmen Fariña, the Chancellor of the New York City DOE.

Mulgrew added that allowing repeatedly disruptive children to remain in classrooms would endanger the quality of education for the thousands of other students in the school district.

“The reality is that many schools are unable or unwilling to comply with current regulations because the Department of Education has failed to provide the needed training, support, funds, and leadership,” Mulgrew wrote. “It is easy to ban suspensions. It is much harder to do the real work so suspensions are no longer necessary.”