After a lengthy investigation, the Christian County Board of Education is currently taking steps to comply with recommendations to correct racial discrimination in Christian County Public Schools' discipline application.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights conducted the investigation into CCPS from 2008 to 2012. Though white students outnumbered black students by a total of more than 2,000 every year of the investigation, the number of black students referred for discipline outnumbered the total of white referrals.
The investigation also found that some black students were disciplined more harshly than whites. For example, an African-American 12th grader was given a five-day out-of-school suspension for disorderly conduct. That student had four previous discipline referrals. Meanwhile, a white 11th grader with 12 prior referrals received only one day in an isolated classroom environment for the same offense.
After receiving the Office for Civil Rights’ recommendations, Christian Schools announced last month a voluntary resolution to improve discipline in the school district. The district will also impose less frequent exclusionary discipline and will increase students’ educational opportunities.
CCPS will hire two new positions as part of the effort to correct the problem – discipline administrator and discipline coordinator. To save money, the school board will move to fold the coordinator position in with an existing minority recruiter position at this Thursday’s board meeting.
