Penna Dexter

School discipline policies in several states are changing for the better.

The shift comes after President Trump issued an executive order last April aimed at restoring common sense to school discipline. The order states: “The Federal Government will no longer tolerate known risks to children’s safety and well-being in the classroom that result from the application of school discipline based on discriminatory and unlawful ‘equity’ ideology.

In 2014, the Obama administration issued guidelines stating that districts must post lower numbers of disciplinary actions, especially involving minority students.

The Daily Signal’s Jared Stepman explains that according to the Obama Department of Justice, “if black students were receiving more suspensions than white students, for instance, that could be seen as a violation of civil rights law.”

According to this thinking, it’s not the behavior, but the punishment, that leads to a future of criminality. Rather than discipline bad actors, schools mainstream them and cross their fingers that no tragedies ensue.

But lax discipline erodes academic standards. And unchecked violent behavior places students, and teachers at risk — sometimes tragically.

In 2018, 14 students and three staff members were killed in a shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school. Reports surfaced of 45 credible calls from citizens validating the impending danger that shooter Nikolas Cruz posed. But he was never arrested for his destructive activities, assaults on students or threats to kill them. He was never referred to law enforcement or expelled, just moved from school to school.

The first Trump administration ended the Obama policy, but President Biden restored it.

The Wall Street Journal reports that several states, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Washington, and West Virginia, have responded to the Trump executive order with new policies which abolish obstacles to removing disruptive students from the classroom.

In its recent legislative session, Texas passed a “Teachers’ Bill of Rights,” which includes a law that allows teachers more leeway to discipline disruptive students.

Effective discipline is based upon behavior, not race.