Changes coming to Gwinnett County Schools’ disciplinary procedures

Changes are coming to the discipline policy at Gwinnett County Schools, after school board members learned how more Gwinnett students are assigned to an alternative school than the other five major metro districts combined.

In Gwinnett, 1,393 students were assigned to alternative schools in 2019, compared to 1,277 combined students in the Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Clayton, and Atlanta school districts, according to the most recent state data.

“It’s so preposterous, and it doesn’t seem very believable,” Gwinnett school board member Karen Watkins said during a work session last Thursday when the data was presented.

During the regular school board meeting, the board passed changes that included getting rid of attendance-related tribunals, allowing adults to advocate for the children, and focusing on other interventions before discipline.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Black and Hispanic students make up 81% of all Gwinnett students suspended and 85% of students in alternative school, according to district data.

TRENDING STORIES:

• UPDATE: 3 shot at Henry County warehouse, police say
• Day care owner arrested after reports of multiple children injured, police say
• Fire that caused Walmart roof collapse now looks intentional, police say

“The system has disproportionately impacted Black, brown and students with disabilities for a lot of years,” said Marlyn Tillman with Gwinnett SToPP, who has been pushing for discipline changes for years.

Tribunals for violent and criminal behavior will still happen.

However, the tribunal room will look less like a courtroom under the new changes.

“Ending the school-to-prison pipeline is important for our community,” said Board Chair Dr. Tarece Johnson, “because everyone benefits when we appropriately address discipline.”

However, some have expressed fears that making changes to discipline could have unintended consequences.

Kevin Luthi says he pulled his daughter from Gwinnett County Schools because of bullying concerns. He says that some students may take advantage of the changes.

“I think it’s just going to get worse,” he said, “because the kids who need to get in trouble and need to be disciplined aren’t going to get disciplined.”

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Gwinnett County families and business owners step up to provide local elementary school with supplies

©2022 Cox Media Group