INSIDE "VOICE," Fall 2008
Continued from "Voice," FALL 2008
Taking on the STPP: Gwinnett County’s Wake-Up Call
Gwinnett County — Marlyn Tillman and Jennifer
Falk “get it” when it
comes to the way the public school system works in Gwinnett County.
They both have kids in public school, both have been heavily involved
in
the PTA (Jennifer at the state level) and other policy-related groups,
and
both have up-close, personal knowledge of the School to Prison Pipeline
(STPP).
Which is why they make an ideal pair to lead the Gwinnett Parent Coalition
to Dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline, a group they founded
shortly after their paths crossed in 2006.
Before teaming up to take on the STPP in Gwinnett, Marlyn sued Gwinnett
County Public Schools (and won) for the vague dress code policy
that landed her son in the STPP. Shortly thereafter she won the ACLU of
Georgia 2007 Georgia Civil Liberties Award for her activism.
Meanwhile, Jennifer, a former human resources professional and the current
NAACP Gwinnett Branch Education Chair, was volunteering to help
families who had a child caught in the STPP process manage the tribunals
and other procedures.
She had also attended a STPP presentation by Benétta Standly, ACLU of
Georgia Statewide Organizer and Public Policy Director.
The STPP is a national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
Grassroots and Squeaky Wheels
At first, Jennifer and Marlyn weren’t sure how much interest their cause would
generate, but before long a solid group of activists was coming to the monthly meetings at the Five Forks Trickum Library and working together to establish the organization’s mission, goals and agenda.
First order of business? Get the data that proves
a disproportionate number of kids of color, poor kids and disabled kids
wind up in the Gwinnett County STPP. That public domain data, however,
came with a price tag of $9,300 to cover the time spent compiling the
list and copy charges. This was out of range for the startup group, so
they paid for the data from three “clusters” instead. A cluster is a high
school plus the middle schools that feed into it.
In addition to establishing statistical proof, the group is intent on
clearing up the confusion about which offenses can get a kid kicked out
of regular school and sent to an alternative school or the court system.
Murky policies were to blame for Marlyn’s son’s troubles.
It took a bit of work to acquire the “Administrator’s Discipline Guidelines
Handbook for Gwinnett County Public Schools” but once they got it and
compared it to the student handbook, they saw crucial information was
being withheld from families.
“It was a bad disciplinary policy,” Jennifer said. “It turned out that
any of 177 violations could lead to a student being separated from his
or her home school.”
The group’s complaints motivated the county to correct the omissions,
and it
implemented a better policy for the 2007-2008 school year. However, the
policies are still not presented in a way that’s easy to understand.
So starting this month, coalition members who have completed “train the
trainer” instruction themselves will lead two-hour interactive parent
workshops to fully explain the two most important discipline policies:
1) The behaviors that funnel kids in the tribunal process that ultimately
moves them from their regular school into an alternative school.
2) The conditions that allow the school resource officer (school cop)
to file juvenile complaints about kids with the court system.
The more families know these policies on the front end, the less likely
their kids will end up in the STPP.
You Named Your
Group What?
Unfortunately, the Gwinnett Parent Coalition to Dismantle the School to
Prison Pipeline will not be working as closely with the Gwinnett County
Board of Education as it had hoped. The group got a chilly reception during
its initial public introduction to the board in February.
“We were chastised for putting out the wrong data when we got the data
from
the state,” Marlyn said. ”The board felt it was being attacked and that
the STPP doesn’t exist here.”
The group was also told that their name was a “personal affront to every
educator in Gwinnett County” and unless they changed their name, the board
will not deal with them. The superintendent did meet with the group and
some headway was made, and later the associate superintendents met with
the group as well, but finally the superindendent’s office sided with
the school board’s mandate that the group change its name.
The group discussed that option in depth. After weighing the benefits
and drawbacks, they opted to stick with the original name.
They will also stick with the original plan. They are dedicated to leading
a parent-driven approach to identifying and dismantling the Gwinnett County’s
STPP through education, district monitoring and accountability, and national
best practices implementation. Current partner organizations include NAACP
Gwinnett County Branch, Georgia State Conference of NAACP, Alpha Phi Alpha
Fraternity, Inc./Rho Kappa Lambda Chapter and the ACLU of Georgia.
They will also team up with other STPP groups, as they’re doing this month
with the Athens-based STTP group and the ACLU of Georgia’s Benétta Standly
for a presentation in Athens.
For more information, please email Gwinnett_STOPP@yahoo.com.
Got a story idea?
If you or someone you know is struggling with a civil liberties issue that other ACLU members might want to read about in our newsletter, please let us know. Contact Verna Barksdale at vbarksdale@acluga.org.