VIERA, Fla. – A presentation Tuesday on Brevard County student discipline reported 13,000 more total referrals following last year’s policy discussions.
After some teachers and bus drivers quit, the school board took a harder stance on enforcing no phones in class and the student dress code.
“We’ve empowered our principals to make decisions at their schools pertaining to discipline,” said Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Pamela Dampier.
School Board Chair Matt Susin said higher numbers actually show strategies are working.
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“We are exactly where I thought we would be,” Susin said during Tuesday’s board workshop.
He argued a year ago bad behavior wasn’t reported as much.
“We had bus drivers that were quitting that were not actually reporting the bus driver referrals,” Susin said. “We had teachers that had given up inside the classroom on writing referrals for cell phones and everything else.”
Brevard school principals attended the workshop. So did parent Kelly Kervin.
“It doesn’t look like discipline’s actually getting better,” she told News 6. “It actually looks like more students are offending.”
Kervin focused on statistics showing more minority students are now attending alternative learning centers.
Last year, the statistics showed there were mostly white students in ALCs.
“I’m incredibly concerned with the rising numbers of ALC placements, especially among our black and brown students,” Kervin said.
Susin responded that the risk-ratio for African American students went down in a year.
“Compared to their counterparts, are actually decreasing,” he said. “The issue we run into is many African American families may not have the affordable ability to send their kid to a private school or online at home.”
Once the district’s current strategies have been in place for an entire year, then Susin believes the discipline numbers will start to come down.
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