Kern County Schools Blasted as Biased

The plaintiffs say that 10.4 percent of all African-American students enrolled in the district and 4 percent of its Latino students were sent to these alternative schools, which are "inferior educational environments that reduce the likelihood of their academic success and subsequent post graduate opportunities."

Such racial disparities exacerbate what is known as the "school-to-prison pipeline," a nationally recognized pattern in which discriminatory educational practices and "punitive discipline policies" push students of color "out of schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice system," the complaint states.

"Students who receive harsh discipline and are transferred out of a general school setting are also more likely to drop out, less likely to graduate on time, if at all, and are less likely to attend or complete college or post-high school vocational training. This affects their overall ability to succeed in life and is more accurately described as the 'school-to-nowhere' pipeline, because while most students from alternative schools do not end up in jail, they do end up unemployed, underemployed, and in the lowest paying jobs," the complaint adds.

On its website, KHSD says its mission is to "provide programs and services to allow ALL students to graduate from high school prepared to succeed in the workplace or at the post-secondary level."

But the plaintiffs say KHSD has developed "highly discretionary" expulsion policies and zero-tolerance standards that disproportionately affect Latino and African-American students.

For example, plaintiff Arlene Sanders, an African-American, claims her son was suspended 10 times for willful defiance and allegedly disrupting class in the 2013-14 school year, and was transferred to an alternative school in May 2014 after he allegedly attempted to steal something.

Plaintiff Isidro Larralde, a Latino, says he was sent to a reform school for defending himself against bullies who were harassing him because of his perceived sexual orientation. He says he told administrators at his original high school and at the reform school about the bullying, but they did nothing to stop it. After being expelled from the reform school and sent to a community school, he says, he decided to drop out because of the way the administration treated him.

These examples are just a few of many. The 61-page lawsuit details many other incidents of alleged discrimination and severe punishment for offenses as small as using foul language in the classroom.

KHSD's discipline code includes a range of behavioral offenses, from willful defiance and being late to class to assault and battery and possession of drugs or a weapon.

The plaintiffs say students of color are far more likely than their white peers to be expelled for minor offenses. Fifty-eight percent of the white students expelled had committed serious offenses such as having a weapon or hurting another student, whereas only 51 percent of Latinos and 33 percent of African-Americans were expelled for these reasons, according to the lawsuit.

Suspension rates also show racial bias: while only 7.69 per 100 white students were suspended for willful defiance, 27.69 per 100 African-Americans and 13.08 per 100 Latinos were suspended for the same offense, the complaint states.

KHSD also "routinely" places students of color on independent study "as a disciplinary measure," preventing them from receiving in-class instruction, from getting enough work to graduate, and from participating in extracurricular activities, according to the complaint.

Durali told Courthouse News that this fact is troubling because students who are expelled or involuntarily placed on independent study are more likely to drop out and join street gangs, and end up in the district attorney's office.

The plaintiffs claim these racial disparities are the result of pervasive racial stereotypes and unconscious biases that claim African-Americans and Latinos are less intelligent, less honest, and more prone to deviant and criminal behavior than whites.

These stereotypes and biases in turn influence KHSD's suspension, expulsion, and reassignment policies, resulting in "relatively harsher treatment of African-American and Latino students" and interfering with their ability to access "equal education opportunities," the complaint states.

Durali insisted that even if the kids that get expelled or assigned to alternative schools are archetypal "bad kids," they still deserve and need help.

"We have an opportunity to make the bad kids into the good kids with the right policies in place," she told Courthouse News.

These policies include implicit bias training, restorative justice and positive behavioral intervention and support (PBI), which studies have shown are effective in reducing suspension and expulsions and "ameliorat(ing) the disparate impacts suffered by children of color that result from explicit and implicit bias," the complaint states.

But KHSD refuses to adopt these policies, and even turned down "free money" from a grant that would have helped it develop racially sensitive approaches to discipline, Durali said.

The district got a $17.6 million grant from the Local Control Funding Formula to increase services to low-income and minority students, but put only "$900,000 toward PBI research and $2.4 million for school cops," Durali said.

She noted that school districts in Fresno and Los Angeles have experienced progress with such programs. Though KHSD has paid the issue "a lot of lip service," she said, it will not commit to adopting these policies.

"We really are not asking for more than what others have already done," Durali said. "We are seeking systematic change to benefit all kids in the district and make it a great school climate for everyone."

The plaintiffs seek a declaration that KHSD's treatment of students of color violates their equal protection and due process rights, and an injunction preventing the district from enforcing racially biased disciplinary measures.

They also want the district to give "educational remediation services" to the plaintiffs and other students who were transferred or expelled due to discriminatory practices, and for the state defendants to ensure that disciplinary policies are "racially and ethnically neutral."

Tina Jung, with the California Department of Education's Communications Division, declined to comment, saying the department had not yet reviewed the complaint.

Requests for comment left for a spokesperson with the Kern High School District were not immediately returned, nor were requests sent to Kern County Superintendent of Schools Christine Lizardi Frazier.

Email addresses and links for contact information for the district's Board of Trustees all led to error pages on Friday.

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