The Seattle Times – Claudia Rowe
“Seattle’s school board may declare a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions for all elementary students, beginning this September, as a way to force changes in discipline in all schools across the city. Such a move has been under discussion for several months, said Harium Martin-Morris, the sponsoring school-board member. His resolution — which still allows for suspension in cases of physical harm — will be introduced at next Wednesday’s board meeting, and is scheduled for a vote in August. “The driver for me was looking at the data itself, and a couple of things jumped out,” Martin-Morris said, citing Seattle’s longtime pattern of disproportionately high suspension rates for black students. African-American children in the city are removed from classrooms at more than four times the rate of their white counterparts.”(more)