Oregon school district under fire for making race 'main criteria' in discipline policy

PORTLAND, Ore. (CITC) — An Oregon school district is being accused of discriminating against students based on their race through its new discipline policy.

Portland Public Schools (PPS) introduced its "Student Support, Discipline & Safety" policy in November. Under the policy, behavioral support plans must consider a student's "trauma," "race" and "gender identity/presentation," as well as whether "social emotional learning" and "restorative justice" are appropriate for them.

The policy further requires each PPS school to maintain a "School Climate Team," tasked with participating in "ongoing training in implicit bias, antiracism and culturally responsive practices." Additionally, it mandates that a teacher not be transferred to another location if doing so would "decrease the building’s percentage of minority teachers to less than the student minority percentage in the building" or decrease its percentage of transgender and nonbinary staff to less than 30%.

The complaint filed Thursday by advocacy group Parents Defending Education (PDE) argues PPS is only disciplining select students based on "immutable characteristics" through its approaches, including race. The group is asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate whether the practices are in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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Caroline Moore, the vice president of PDE, told Crisis in the Classroom (CITC) Friday the PPS guidelines "make it clear race and gender identity are at the forefront of administrators' minds." She argued the district is setting a "harmful precedent."

"These characteristics will now be the main criteria for deciding severity of discipline for students, even in cases of threats of violence," Moore said. "Moreover, if educators are involved with student discipline disputes, teachers will not be removed from the situation if it would impact the school's educator gender identity quota."

Parents nationwide have recently raised concerns over their school districts' discipline policies, including those which include elements of restorative justice.Restorative justice-based discipline practices often focus on mediation over punishment, and schools which use the approach typically encourage students to resolve conflicts in groups.

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A Minnesota mom urged the St. Louis Park Public School District last month to abandon its restorative justice-based approaches, arguing that while they are "wonderful in practice," a change must be considered "if they're not working." Her concerns mirror those expressed in California's San Diego Unified School District, where some parents feared last year restorative justice practices were inadvertently encouraging violence.

A 2022 report by the National Institutes of Health states while restorative justice practices are often used to "reduce racial disparities," there is little evidence demonstrating how successful they are in addressing the root of such disparities.

CITC reached out to PPS for comment, but did not immediately receive a response. This story will be updated if a response is received.

Have something for the Crisis in the Classroom team to investigate? Call or text the national tip line at 202-417-7273.