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The New Mexico school district, which issued disproportionately harsh penalties for Indigenous students, says it has dramatically reduced long-term suspensions.
Two years ago, New Mexico’s depth and Propovica face a higher percentage of indigenous children in New Mexico faced a higher percentage of severe school punishments, and was primarily responsible for disparities in the Department of Justice’s civil rights investigation. owes discipline practices in the school district.
According to an email from Principal Mike Hyatt of Gallup-Mckinley County Schools in January, the number of students fell for 90 days, from 21 children to 21 children from 2021 to 22 to 6 the following year, and last year to 1. I did. . Of these 28 long-term removals, 86% or 24 cases were involved.
However, states have cited the federal public records laws that govern educational records, making it impossible to independently verify these claims, and have not yet been fully compiled discipline data in question. refused to provide New Mexico deeply.
The district now appears to be more wise in imposing long-term removals and reserves them for serious and potentially dangerous violations.
As an example: From 2016-17 to 2019-20, before the change, Gallup-Mckinley reported that long-term removal was used as punishment for destructive behaviour (“disorderly conduct”) . However, in all cases where Hyatts are listed from 2021-22 to 2023-24, long-term removals are only for more serious violations, such as repeated drug possession, drug distribution, assault, armed batteries, theft, weapon possession, etc. was used. He wrote.
In addition to the data, Hyatt said the district has made policy changes to improve student engagement and prevent behavioral issues. It replaced the district administrator who has since retired student discipline, he said.
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In 2022, news organizations conducted a detailed analysis of statewide school discipline rates, showing that Indigenous students are experiencing the most severe forms of punishment. Exclusion from schools and introductions to law enforcement.
Using district discipline reports obtained from the state’s Department of Public Education, the news organization has statewide Gallup McKinley, the nation’s largest native student organization, kicks Indigenous children out of classrooms for higher fees. It was discovered that it is the epicenter of the trend. At the time, district supervisors called the findings “completely false” than other students between 2016 and 2020, but district data contradicted the claims.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres, who heads the state’s Department of Justice and its new Civil Rights Office, began reviewing the issue in late 2023, according to the email. Interagency reviewing the depths of New Mexico.
The state’s Department of Justice investigation also faces delays as it attempted to retrieve student discipline data from Gallup-Mckinley, the email says. On August 21, 2024, two people from October 17, 2024, investigators took the school district to violate statutory deadlines in meeting the inspection of public records law requests. .
Other emails for 2023 and 2024 reflect investigators’ complaints about their repeated efforts to provide more detailed data and meet state education personnel who can answer questions. .
In early June 2024, Sean Sullivan, the state Department of Justice Special Advisor, urgently requested a face-to-face meeting with education department staff to discuss student discipline data. The meeting took place on June 20th, but by July 1st, Sullivan noted that investigators still needed more detailed data. And in August, Sullivan repeatedly sought responses from the Educational Data Manager regarding missing data.
Lauren Rodriguez, a spokesman for the state Department of Justice, told New Mexico in late January that an authorities’ civil rights investigation was underway. Hyatt said he believes his office has met the department’s requirements.
In a January email exchange with reporters, Hyatt pushes back New Mexico into detail, repeating Propovica reports and asserting discipline practices at Gallup-Mckinley, district past reports to the state suggest It wasn’t as strict as it was.
He said an internal review after the 2022 news headlines revealed that widespread data entry errors in the district’s quarterly student discipline report identified the report to the state. Specifically, he said the punishment reported to the state was reported to the state because expulsion should be recorded as a suspension instead. (The district has also changed its definition of expulsion in a way that reduces the count of the most severe penalties. At the time of newsroom analysis, the district defined expulsion as a removal of more than 90 days.)
New Mexico AG to investigate the Gallup-Mckinley School District on the strict discipline of Native American students
But the details of New Mexico and Propobrica said that students removal from schools for more than 90 days is much higher than the rest of Gallup-Mckinley, regardless of what those deals are called. I discovered it.
After meeting with Torres about the state Department of Justice investigation in September 2023, Hyatt signed with Unlimited Advice, a Kentucky-based financial consulting contractor. The contractor’s report showed that indigenous students’ discipline rates were modestly higher than other students, but in their view it was not important.
However, the company’s assessments did not include expulsion and did not conduct specific analysis of the most severe forms of punishment, as the press did.
