Sam's Story and Senate Bill 718

After I received my bachelor’s degree, I decided to volunteer for a year and work as an AmeriCorps member.  I was accepted to be a mentor for Communities in Schools of Central Texas, a dropout prevention program that provides social services to youth in public schools.  As a CIS AmeriCorps member, I mentor and tutor a caseload of twenty students at a middle school in North Austin that was 97% Hispanic and disadvantaged.  There were frequently not enough textbooks for the classroom and not enough teachers to accommodate the needs of the at-risk students.  As a mentor and tutor, my job was to provide supportive guidance to students in both academic and personal endeavors and to provide supplemental instruction for students with poor and unsatisfactory grades. 

One of my students—I’ll call her Sam—was a particularly challenging student for me during my first semester at the middle school.  She had a decorated disciplinary record at the middle school for various behavioral problems and was frequently suspended or sent to In-School Suspension (ISS).  After bringing marijuana to school in December '09, Sam was sent to the Alternative Learning Center (ALC) for ten days.  After Christmas break, however, Sam returned to the home campus, began staying after school with me to complete make-up work, and we developed a close mentoring relationship.  She raised her grades from F's to B’s and seldom received a disciplinary referral.  Teachers even visited CIS to let me know that Sam had drastically improved and was making a great deal of progress.  In April '10, however, everything changed.  One day during Sam’s math class, her substitute teacher began yelling at her for using her IPod.  Because the normal math teacher had no problem with students using their IPods, Sam continued listening to the music.  When Sam ignored the substitute’s request, he threw a pencil at her to get her attention.  Angrily, Sam cursed at her substitute and walked out of class.  She received a Class C misdemeanor, was sent back to the Alternative Learning Center, and has not returned to an AISD public school.  It has been a year.  After being sent to ALC for something in her (and my) eyes ridiculous, Sam decided to stop caring about school and is now involved in substance abuse and gang involvement.  Although this is an extreme example, it appears that her loss of interest in school could have been prevented had she not received a Class C misdemeanor for a curse word.  Thanks to the passing of Senate Bill 718, this hopefully won’t be an issue for future students.

Taken from Whitmire's Mar. 10 Statesman Opinion Article

On March 10, State Senator John Whitmire wrote an opinion article in the Austin American Statesman regarding Senate Bill 718 and other bills related to Class C misdemeanors.  Whitmire reported that Class C tickets, issued primarily for disruption of class, fighting where no serious injury is involved, curfew violations, and truancy, send “thousands of Texas students—some under the age of 10—to adult criminal court each school year to face fines of up to $500, community service, and court costs.”  The amount of Class C tickets issued in Texas is absolutely absurd; Whitmire said that “over a 5-year period, Class C tickets were issued to 1,200 elementary school students in Dallas ISD. Houston ISD's police department wrote 5,763 Class C misdemeanor tickets to students in 2008-09 alone.”  Although Austin numbers were not given, I would assume that they had very similar reports.

These numbers are extremely alarming, and Sam is just one of thousands.  Although Sam has not yet dropped out of school, she is definitely headed that way.  If more productive interventions were in place, Sam could still be in school being the successful student she was working hard to be during her spring semester.  Instead, she received a ticket that criminalized her behavior and made her believe that she was destined for failure. Whitmire made a great reference to Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefforson’s point:

"‘More than 80 percent of adult prison inmates are school dropouts. Charging kids with criminal offenses for low-level behavioral issues exacerbates the problem.’ This is a warning worth heeding.”

I agree wholeheartedly.  Criminalizing students’ behavior is not the answer.  More efficient interventions need to be in place to help students change negative and disruptive behaviors instead of punishing them and segregating them from the rest of their peers.  Maybe a positive behavior reinforcement program? Maybe a psychoeducational class for students with problem behaviors? Something needs to be done. 

On April 26, Senate passed SB 718, relating to disciplinary action taken against public school students on the basis of serious misbehavior.  SB 718 will help, but more has to be done.  If not, Sam won’t be the only one dropping out.

To read Whitmire's March 10 opinion article, click here