All Photographs represent aspects within the civil rights complaint. Tuesday, December 17, 2013. (Photo by Ted Jackson, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)
What do we do when an ugly reality comes face-to-face with the pretty picture fame and fortune flaunted? Do we run? Do we hide? Do we conveniently forget or perhaps, we seek more information. We might ask for a comment or accept what is given. There is reason to believe that those who we thought could be trusted, inadvertently or not, led us astray. This is the quandary New Orleans residents find themselves in.
Most remember the day in 2010 when Oprah Winfrey drove into the city with a bundle of money. She donated and hand-delivered one million dollars to New Orleans Sci Academy. A year later, claims of systematic discrimination against disabled students appeared in the courts. The Oprah-Backed Charter School was among them. It is now 2014, years have passed since the revelation. And while Oprah remains silent New Orleans parents do not.
Civil Rights Complaint Targets New Orleans Charter Group Collegiate Academies
A civil rights complaint filed Tuesday against New Orleans charter school managers Collegiate Academies alleges discipline so harsh that it violates federal laws and verges on abuse. A group calling itself the Better Education Support Team, plus more than 30 students and relatives, asked the U.S. Education and Justice departments’ civil rights divisions to investigate.
Their complaint details “out-of-control suspension practices for trivial matters” and “intimidation of students exercising First Amendment rights.” It also alleges a host of violations concerning students with disabilities.
Collegiate runs Sci Academy, which has been hailed as a model for charters and was lauded by Oprah Winfrey in 2010. That school is already full for the fall. However, complaints arose in November about the discipline policies at the group’s two new charters, George Washington Carver Collegiate and G.W. Carver Prep, culminating in protests and the withdrawal of three students.
Collegiate Academies chief executive Morgan Carter Ripski would not comment directly on the complaint. Instead, she released this statement:
“Collegiate Academies’ schools remain a popular choice among New Orleans families. We work in partnership with our families to create a school culture and academic program that will help students reach their potential. We look forward to welcoming our students back on Tuesday, and to continue helping them learn and grow.”
The three schools had the highest suspension rates in New Orleans last year. That was a core issue in the November and December protests, and it leads Tuesday’s complaint.
Students reported being sent home for discipline infractions such as “laughing too much … hugging a friend and most commonly for being ‘disrespectful.'” While no individual rule is harsh, together “they create an oppressive atmosphere which … can turn the school atmosphere into one which prizes strict authoritarian discipline at the expense of learning,” the complaint states.
The problems reported with special education students are especially striking. Students are repeatedly sent to the back of the class and not allowed to participate. An autistic student was called “stupid” by a teacher, who then allowed peers “to throw paper at him and call him names.”
Carver Prep and Carver Collegiate have reportedly suspended students with disabilities more than 10 times each. By federal law, 10 days of suspensions are supposed to trigger an immediate meeting to see whether the student needs an alternative setting and to ensure the student is not being punished for a disability. Those meetings did not occur for students identified as L and P.
The mother of Student O, who attends Carver Collegiate, was not notified about a fall 2012 meeting to update her child’s Individual Education Program. However, the updated IEP stated that the parent had been invited but could not attend.
Left to right, Jherell Johnson, 15 and Russell Robinson, Jr., 16 and Kalob Scott, 17, stand along the school fence following a press conference/protest where three parents withdrew the three boys from the Carver Collegiate and Carver Prep charters due to concerns about discipline, Tuesday, December 17, 2013. (Photo by Ted Jackson, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)
The complaint reports other problems with parental notification as well. The schools fail to notify parents when their children are suspended, leaving students to kill time in Joe Brown Park or the library, and the schools do not notify parents when students are expelled from the bus. Parent B and Student K said Carver Prep also does not report students’ injuries to parents and does not send students to the nurse.
Far from engaging with the community, the report says, charter board members walked out of the room in December when angry protesters walked in. The schools also “all violate students’ freedom of speech rights” by suspending students after the November protests.
Attorney Anna Lellelid, who is assisting the complainants, said she has statements from 20 students, 12 parents and one teacher. The three schools’ enrollment tops 800, more than half of which is at Sci Academy. The schools are on break this week.
In December, Collegiate officials said most of those involved in the protests were community members and alumni, not current parents or students. The organization surveyed families in December and found 93 percent were satisfied with their children’s education.
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1. What entity is allowed to do their OWN satisfactory survey and report the results as valid and reliable? Is that the level of integrity they are working with?;
2. The mantra of Collegiate school and there co-conspirator, Clark. Famous justifications for the non-evident based, practices. ..”.race and rigor can’t both be discussed in the same conversarion. (Ignore Xavier U and Morehouse and McHarry). We have to “teach these children to ACT like MIDDLE CLASS Americans. ( Colonization at it’s best.) They NEED structure and punishment to be able to change. All that music, NOLA culture is unnecessary”. (Ask to see their Black History curriculum, programs or culturally relevant teacher preparation training or professional development protocol.) Oh wait…Teach Like A Champion. ..addresses racial bias right!?
3. Of course the families in the lawsuit are former sstudents…have you reviewed their rate of “encouraging” kids to leave.
4.Other parents are not AWAre…trust me and qualify options are limited. Why go from worse to worse?
4.How do folks get in touch with plaintiff’s attorney to expand the plaintiff class?
As an educated black man I find it exceedingly difficult to understand my own race.
We are the first inline to take handouts and the last in line to “offer of hand”.
Blacks are the sole source of our own misery and when someone comes along with any method of learning, involving discipline and rigorous testing we get contrite and stupid.
And then theres this ridiculous notion that we need more black teachers teaching black students.
Thats the purest form of racism that I’ve EVER heard!!!
What we need is MORE black FAMILIES that have a father and mother diciplining their spawn, so the caring, educating WHITE teachers wont have to!!!
I work with students, families and communities that serve populations similar to the one that is written about in this piece. Every day people within the community work together offering support for the children and for each other. I strongly disagree with your implications that black families are somehow majorly at fault for what does or does not happen in schools. When poverty is the rule there is much to consider. Through it all, the parents I experience do provide students direction, discipline love and stimulation. They care and show that they care.
Just as an Irish Catholic teacher from the Irish community in Chicago is likely to have a level of understanding for Irish American students and their parents, a black teacher, who grew up in the community, is more likely to have to understand and connect with black chidden. The ability to better connect with their families can make a huge difference. A privileged young white teacher from an Ivy League school is less likely to understand what he or she has never experienced.
Dear Dr. MLK…
I am flummoxed. I would think that any of us might have had innumerable opportunities to see the fallacy of generalizations. That said, I know that each of us can easily fall into the antipathy trap. Anecdotes are powerful and still at times statistics can capture the imagination. I wish to offer what you may have missed…Share These Stats About Black America …