According to a national study by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, Missouri is the second-worst state in racially disproportionate suspension rates, and has the greatest gap between the suspension rate of elementary school aged children of color and that of white children.
In response to this staggering statistic, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (LSEM), a non-profit organization that provides legal assistance and representation to low-income people in eastern Missouri, has created a new unit with a big goal: ending the school-to-prison pipeline and creating an equitable educational system.
“The education justice program is a new unit, comprised of three people, and we are seeking to achieve education equity and racial justice for all children,” said Susie Lake, staff attorney for the new project. “And we’re going to attempt to do that through impact litigation and other impact advocacy tools.”
“We will work to address these inequities, because we know that school suspensions can have a profoundly negative impact on children, families and communities,” said Education Justice Program Director Luz María Henríquez.
“Suspended students are less likely to graduate on time and more likely to be suspended again. Moreover, suspended students are more likely to repeat a grade, drop out of school and become involved in the juvenile justice system.”
The Education Justice Program has a multi-pronged plan to do something about those inequities.
“We may be filing and litigating a school discipline issue, or other educational issue that have the potential for some sort of broad impact that will create some sort of systemic change,” Lake said. “Also, something we’re planning on doing is drafting policy papers, maybe concerning systemic issues that contribute to education inequity.”
Additionally, LSEM’s Education Justice unit will be working with other community organizations, including the ACLU and Metropolitan Congregations United, both of which were heavily involved in the recent dispute at Hazelwood schools over mass student suspensions. They will be working to make sure the suggestions of the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights are enforced, rather than allowing unfair school policies – whether it’s more African-American kids being suspended than white kids, children being handcuffed in school, or homeless students being made unable to attend school at all — to continue.
“We’re working with community partners to do community education and outreach, educate community members, parents and students, about any sort of issue – maybe a discipline issue or something like that – that can contribute to education inequity,” said Lake.
“Talking with parents, and seeing, are your kiddos reading on grade level? Do you feel like your kiddos are really learning in school? Are your kiddos getting pushed out? And then we come in with writing up a policy paper about what we’ve heard from the community. Or trying to get at some of those issues through litigation.”
Aside from community education about these issues, the group will be taking some cases of education inequity to court. They will be working using the impact litigation model.
“We’re always trying to find things that are going to have some sort of bigger impact,” said Lake. “It’s going to address the issues that are going on for that individual client, but also, it’ll hopefully create positive change for other kiddos.”
They hope to find cases that will create legal precedent for more equitable school discipline policies.
Lake said that if parents suspect that their child is being treated unjustly in school, “the first step is to call us.” The Education Justice Program may be able to take on the child’s case.
“Sometimes it’s this sort of thing where we know we can write a letter [to the district], and the child’s back in. Or it might be something where we think this might be getting at a bigger issue, maybe we’ve seen this a few different times from this particular school district, or this particular school, and so it might be something that we can help them address.”
LSEM’s office phone number is (314) 534-4200. If you believe your child is being discriminated against, their office is open for calls from parents, teachers and administrators.
