A Washington state school district has passed a new policy encouraging school administrators to consider race when disciplining students.
The Clover Park School District Board of Directors approved the new policy on March 14 by a 3-2 vote over objections from board members who expressed concerns that it was ill-conceived.
The Tacoma suburban district will now employ a “culturally responsive discipline” that encourages school staff to impose punishments that “can be customized in a culturally responsive manner to meet the needs of individual students.”
Critics say the new approach is actually a race-based disciplinary policy that encourages harsher or lighter punishments based on a student’s race, with white students being more severely disciplined.
But the district insists it is following a state law passed in 2021 that compels districts to “align themselves with standards of cultural competency, diversity, equity and inclusion.”
The Clover Park School District Board of Directors approved a new policy earlier this month that encourages administrators to consider race when disciplining students
At the school board meeting earlier this month, board member Anthony Veliz, who ultimately voted in favor of the policy, asked for an example of what so-called “cultural discipline” might look like.
Chief Executive Alyssa Anderson Pearson, who supported the measure, laughed nervously and yielded to acting superintendent Brian Laubach.
“Essentially they relate to you looking at whether you distribute the discipline fairly among the ethnic groups, the racial groups,” Laubach explained.
“So you discipline African American boys more than white boys?”
John Arbeeny, a former deputy mayor of Lakewood, expressed skepticism about the statement in a letter to the editor of the Suburban Times.
“Thus, ‘culturally appealing discipline’ is merely a misleading cover term for ‘racial/ethnic based discipline,’ which attempts to ‘balance’ the number of disciplinary incidents based on racial/ethnic populations or other undefined criteria,” Arbeeny wrote.
Chief Executive Alyssa Anderson Pearson, who backed the measure, laughed nervously, yielding to acting superintendent Brian Laubach when asked to define the policy
“It has little to do with cultural group or individual differences (which are difficult to determine), discipline in general, or creating a safe academic environment,” Arbeeny added.
“I wonder what the public would think if this were explained in plain language: ‘a race/ethnicity-based disciplinary policy’?” he asked.
Jason Rantz, a conservative commentator, went further in criticizing the policy, writing in a column for KTTH-AM, “In practice, this means preferential treatment for racial minorities.”
“It would likely offer harsher penalties to white students, even if the behavior is identical to that of a black or Hispanic student,” he argued.
The Clover Park School District, which is the 28th largest in the state with 12,022 students, is 35 percent Hispanic, 28 percent White, 13 percent Black and 4 percent Asian.
Clover Park High School is seen above. The district’s student body is 35 percent Hispanic, 28 percent White, 13 percent Black, and 4 percent Asian
Board member Paul Wagemann, who opposed the policy, argued that it was poorly defined.
“Until we, the five of us, have discussed all these definitions at work, until we do that, I think it’s negligent to move this forward,” Wagemann said at the March 14 meeting.
‘Let’s say we both commit the same crime. Then the question should be, what are the consequences of this offense and how do we go through this process?’ he said.
“And to be fair, if we both do the same thing, I think we should face the same consequences,” Wagemann added.
“And I think that’s how most kids and playgrounds see it. Most of us as citizens of our community like to think of it that way – that it’s the same.’