What is this petition about?

For five months, a racist white student at State College Area High School freely circulated pictures of himself displaying swastikas and the n-word without consequences. Now, a 16-year-old Black male student who responded to months of harassment and racial intimidation is facing devastating repercussions for the district’s failures to protect him. 

The State College Area School District (SCASD) consistently fails to address the deep-seated problem of racism and racialized violence that occurs in their schools. The district's repeated response of presenting racist incidents as isolated cases downplays the pervasiveness of racism and has proven to be dangerous to Black students. This approach was most overt in October 2015, when two white male high school students were photographed wearing N*gger 1, N*gger 2 t-shirts. Then Interim Principal, Curtis Johnson, told reporters that the two students were not bullies or prejudiced, instead, “it was just absentmindedness…” and the two students asking, “why can some people say the N-word, while others can’t?” (Milazzo, 2015).

Who are we petitioning?

We are petitioning the District Attorney, Bernie Cantorna, to reject the State College Police Department’s recommendations of charging this Black child with felony aggravated assault, simple assault, and harassment. His life can be ruined if convicted of these charges. It is an abominable injustice that a fist fight from which both students walked away from should result in the Black male student to face prolonged suspension as well as felony charges, while the White male student, who adorned his arm with racist slurs and swastikas, suffers no serious repercussion.

Instead, we are also calling on the District Attorney’s office to launch an investigation of inequitable schooling practices, racist harassment, and potential hate crimes committed against Black students in the State College Area School District. We insist on the District Attorney's office and the school district’s opportunity to act differently by engaging all recourses available to support this student and his family, such as counseling, participation in restorative justice mediations offered by organizations like the Youth Aid Panel, and anti-racist education.

Why are these two actions necessary and important?

In the US, Black male students experience disproportionate discipline, particularly expulsion, arrest and/or incarceration, pushing them out of the classroom into the criminal justice system (Jordan, 2015; NCES, 2017; Quereshi & Okonofua, 2017). SCASD’s practices reflect these national trends of inequity by over-disciplining Black students. In the district, boys, Black and Latino students, and students who identified with two or more races have disproportionate referrals and in-school suspensions in the middle schools and the high school (Bock, Chatters, Pringle, Ricker, 2021; O’Donnell, Block, Chatters, Pringle, Ricker, 2020; State College Area School District Board of Directors, 2021). 

In this case, the State College Police Department is also feeding into the school-to-prison pipeline by recommending charges of felony aggravated assault, simple assault, and harassment against this Black child. In the past, both SCASD and the State College Police Department have been known to refer White students to restorative alternatives for similar arrestable first-time offenses. They have denied this Black child that responsiveness. 

A school administration that ignores racism from White students and amplifies the abuse of Black students with the threat of felony jail time, sends a chilling message to Black students and their families: we will not protect you. At this point, these actions against Black students in SCASD are a violation of their civil rights and should be investigated as such. By signing this petition, you support efforts to 1) prevent the legal system from unfairly punishing a Black student in need of support, and 2) demanding that the district be finally held accountable to the Black children and families in their care.

References

Bock, V., Chatters, S., Pringle, H. & Ricker, K. (2021, April 29). Significant Disproportionality: Discipline and identification of Black Students. https://go.boarddocs.com/pa/stco/Board.nsf/files/C2JRX470107F/$file/6.B.%20Special%20Education%20Significant%20Disproportionality%20of%20Black%20Students%2005-03-2021.pdf 

Jordan, H. (2015). Beyond zero tolerance: Discipline and policing in Pennsylvania public schools. Pennsylvania: American Civil Liberties Union. https://aclupa.org/en/publications/beyond-zero-tolerance-discipline-and-policing-pennsylvania-public-schools 

Milazzo, B. (2015, October 29). District turns photo incident into ‘teachable moment’. Center Daily Times. https://www.centredaily.com/article44728461.html 

O’Donnell, R., Block, V., Chatters, S., Pringle, H. & Ricker, K. (2020, October 1). Discipline Disproportionality: Black Students with Special Ed. Services. https://go.boarddocs.com/pa/stco/Board.nsf/files/BTYSZA75130F/$file/7.A.2.%20Discipline%20Disproportionality_%20Black%20Students%20with%20Special%20Ed.%20Svcs%2010-05-2020.pdf 

Quereshi, A., & Okonofua, J. (2017). Locked out of the classroom: How implicit bias contributes to disparities in school discipline. NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.

State College Area School District Board of Directors. (2021, May 27). State college school board work session on the district’s equity audit. C-NET. https://videoplayer.telvue.com/player/GNduNoua2rBThhw6N4PRP9OCSPf6B2ru/playlists/4827/media/646438?sequenceNumber=17&autostart=false&showtabssearch=true 

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2019). Status and trends in the education of racial and ethnic groups. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/raceindicators/indicator_rda.asp#:~:text=of%20school%20personnel.-,An%20out%2Dof%2Dschool%20suspension%20is%20an%20instance%20in%20which,%2C%20home%20or%20behavior%20center