Dive Brief:
- When student misbehavior doesn’t meet the legal standards of disorderly conduct and no one is willing to press charges for an assault, school resource officers in South Carolina can charge students with “disturbing schools.”
- The Post and Courier reports the disturbing schools charge carries a heavier penalty than both simple assault and disorderly conduct — a $1,000 fine and a 90-day jail sentence — and it has been unevenly applied.
- In Charleston County, 85% of the students charged with disturbing schools between August 2014 and December 2015 were black, even though only 40% of the school population was, but a new discipline policy is set to take effect this school year and the ACLU South Carolina branch is considering filing a lawsuit to challenge the law at the state level.
Dive Insight:
The disturbing schools charge is particularly subjective and broad. It can be used to arrest any student behaving “in an obnoxious manner,” interfering with or disturbing students or teachers, or loitering on school property. It is exactly the type of law that critics say reinforces the school-to-prison pipeline, referring students to the criminal justice system for behavior that could otherwise be handled in school. The latest Civil Rights Data Survey found there are 1.6 million students who attend high schools with police officers but no guidance counselors.
Many districts are making efforts to block that pipeline. Restorative justice policies are one example that emphasize discussion and force students to take responsibility for their actions but provide concrete pathways for students to reintegrate into the school community following bad behavior.