St. Paul school suspensions are down, but concerns linger, especially over race

Visitors can tell by the plaques on the wall that Melissa Gallagher is proud of her kids.

One award, given to son Tyrese, was signed by the principal of St. Paul's Humboldt High when Tyrese earned academic honors in the 2013-14 school year.

In the past two years, however, Tyrese ran into trouble by arriving late to class and being disruptive when he got there. By the time he left Humboldt for a charter school, he had been suspended six times for nonviolent behavior for two or more days and dismissed from school for parts of nearly 25 others.

While the St. Paul School District is reporting progress on some of the behavioral issues that helped oust former Superintendent Valeria Silva, civil rights advocates see Tyrese's experience as a troubling example of what they deem to be the unfair treatment of black students in schools.

Black students make up less than one-third of the St. Paul district's student population, yet during the first quarter of this school year, they accounted for 77 percent of all suspensions. Attention to the issue is expected to intensify as school board members set about the task of selecting a new superintendent.

"Are we concerned? Yeah. That's an ongoing concern," board Chairman Jon Schumacher said last week of the suspension disparities. He sees hope in moves that include the piloting of alternative approaches to discipline that value relationship-building over punishment.

The district has seen improvement on other fronts.

Student-on-staff violence appears to be on the decline. The Ramsey County attorney's office said it filed eight fourth-degree assault cases involving school employees in St. Paul in 2016, down from 15 in 2015.

A student's attack on a teacher at Central High in 2015 spurred calls for action at the State Capitol to better protect teachers. A legislative group that has been examining student discipline statewide is expected to release its findings next week.

Interim Superintendent John Thein senses when visiting St. Paul schools that the climate is improving.

But nothing carries more weight, he said, than employees being out in the community, leaning over fences, saying, "Things are feeling better in school," and that is happening, too, he said.

At Harding High recently, however, during a community meeting on the superintendent search, a St. Paul elementary teacher spoke of kids running wild in the halls of her school. St. Paul has discipline problems, she said.

Gallagher, sitting across from the teacher, countered that the district doesn't know what to do with kids with ADHD.

"If they are bored with something, they are going to act out," she said. "Instead of suspending or punishing them, learn to deal with them."

Gallagher, as it turns out, was referring to her son.

For years, there has been high emotion, and heavy stakes, around black student suspension in St. Paul.

In 2011-12, Anne Carroll, then a school board member, pinned much of the blame for suspension disparities on teachers and administrators.

Rising in opposition was Aaron Benner, then a district elementary teacher, who said some black students were disrespectful and defiant, and should be held accountable when they misbehave.

About the same time, the district began calling upon teachers to take part in "courageous conversations" examining the potential biases they bring to their jobs. As some bristled, Benner, who is black, gained an ever-widening audience as a critic of Silva and the district's discipline practices.

Khulia Pringle, community organizer for Students for Education Reform (SFER Minnesota), wants to refocus attention on the issue of black students being forced from school — sometimes for seemingly minor infractions. She may circulate a petition on the subject as part of the superintendent search process. She has worked with Tyrese's mother to seek an end to "business as usual" when it comes to suspensions of students like him.

A district behavioral report on Tyrese runs 77 pages, with 74 documenting his experience at Humboldt. In addition to being dismissed for infractions that included being late to class and disobeying orders to put away his phone and refrain from "play fighting," he was required to serve in-school suspensions on more than 25 other occasions. Out-of-school suspensions involve more serious violations, and in Tyrese's six cases, they included throwing apples at another student, running out of class to witness a fight and alleged "gang activity" that consisted of an administrator overhearing him talking about a gang in a hallway.

Gallagher said her son can get restless when not on his medication. She said the only intervention offered by the school was to ensure he took his medication. She said he trusted only one teacher, Theresa Behnke, who is active in an after-school program to which Tyrese was referred in November. Rather than send him there, however, his mother enrolled him in a charter school, where she says he is thriving again.

Asked about the mother's claims that Humboldt offered no behavioral services to her son, Toya Stewart Downey, a district spokeswoman, said the district cannot say what help, if any, it has provided to a student. But, she said, it has a "multitude of services" available to tailor to a student's needs.

Minneapolis, too, has struggled with suspension disparities. In 2014-15, when former Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson barred kindergartners and first-graders from being suspended for nonviolent behavior, black students accounted for 78 percent of all suspensions.

A proposal to stop suspending kids from preschool through third grade was a recommendation considered by the legislative group on student discipline. So, too, was an increase in support services. The group will present its findings to a state Senate panel on Thursday.

Anthony Lonetree • 612-673-4109