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ACLU, school settle over scuffle |
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Monday, 24 September 2007 |
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By Jon Klusmire
Register Staff 9-22-2007
A physical scuffle between Native American students and a Bishop police officer at Home Street Middle School nearly two years ago has led to an agreement to increase training in conflict resolution, diversity awareness and cultural sensitivity for students and staff at the school.
In addition, the agreement puts numerous conditions on the school district before it could reinstitute a “school resource officer” program which places a police officer on school grounds. Shortly after the incident involving officer Glenn McClinton, the school and the Bishop Police Department ended the school resource officer program. There is currently no police officer on the campus, and no plans to put an officer back in the school.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Bishop Union Elementary School District both recently approved the agreement, which brought an end to several years of negotiations.
“Both sides and the families involved felt it was in everyone’s best interest to resolve the matter” rather than go to court, said BUESD Superintendent Barry Simpson. Theagreement will be enforceable in court, and will be in effect until Aug. 1, 2012.
From the start of the two years of talks with the ACLU, Simpson said it seemed the ACLU was more interested in a settlement than actually bringing a civil rights lawsuit against the district. The school district did not have to pay any fees or monetary damages. Both sides paid for their own legal fees.
“This settlement will ensure that Native American children in Bishop will be able to grow and learn in a safe environment,” said Jory Steele, staff attorney for the ACLU of Northern California.
“Good, positive training about being more culturally aware and sensitive” is an effective approach to meeting the challenges of a diverse student body, said Simpson. “Ongoing training is always positive.”
“Our staff has great respect and concern for all students,” Simpson said. “We want to create a positive experience for our students, which we think we have done, and felt the agreement was good for all our students.”
Carolyn Stone, the grandmother of the student who was thrown to the ground by McClinton during the incident, said: “I hope this settlement will provide the positive learning environment that every child deserves,” according to a press release from the ACLU.
The ACLU got involved on behalf of the Stone family, which had three students involved in the physical and verbal altercation with McClinton on Oct. 11, 2005. One student, age 13 at the time, was physically restrained by McClinton, and eventually arrested and taken off campus. Other students watching the incident got into a “verbal” altercation with the officer, it was reported at the time.
Numerous students were expelled as a result of the incident, and the agreement clears those students’ records of “the improper suspensions,” the ACLU said.
Another part of the settlement involves having the BUESD keep records regarding school discipline “based on race and grade, as well as a written record of complaints of physical and verbal harassment or discrimination of students,” according to the ACLU.
In researching the school’s records, the ACLU said that the district “had a long history of harsh disciplinary treatment against Native American students.” From 2000 to 2006, Native American students, which made up about 17 percent of the student body, accounted for about 67 percent of the suspensions for being “disrespectful/argumentative.”
The ACLU did not provide the actual number of Native American students suspended during that time, or note whether the number of suspensions it cited included multiple suspensions of individual students of all races.
The school district and Bishop police agreed to drop the school resource officer program and take McClinton out of the school in December 2005.
At the time, the school was trying to enforce a new dress code, and several school board meetings featured angry parents complaining about both the dress code and the enforcement procedures used by school staff.
The incident in question involved McClinton responding to a call for help from the playground teacher who was attempting to discipline some students.
After review, the Police Department and school district said school staff should have handled the alleged violation of school rules instead of having McClinton step in.
However, parents whose students witnessed the incident wrote letters supporting McClinton and how he dealt with the potentially dangerous situation.
After an internal investigation, McClinton “was totally exonerated of any wrongdoing” in connection to his handling of the incident, said Bishop Police Lt. Chris Carter.
The agreement with the ACLU allows the BUESD to re-start the School Resource Officer Program in the future, Simpson noted. The school board would have to approve the move and additional training for the police officer, and school employees would have to be completed before the officer could be stationed on campus.
There are no plans to revive the program, Simpson said. “We do not feel the need to have a school resource officer at this time.”
Simpson took over the job of interim superintendent in February 2006, replacing former superintendent Mark Geyer. Simpson noted that he grew up in the Bishop area, was formerly the superintendent of the Round Valley School District, and is aware of the variety of issues the community and the schools have faced in the past and continue to confront.
The change in administrators was the primary reason the talks with the ACLU took as long as they did, Simpson said. He said he immediately began addressing concerns about the specific incident, its broader implications and talked about possible solutions that would benefit students and school staff.
The ACLU received complaints from parents about the October 2005 incident, but did not become involved until April 2006, when it filed Public Record Act requests with the school district.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 November 2007 )
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