Courtesy Richmond Public Schools
by James C. Sherlock
I am seldom surprised by the policies and actions of the Richmond Public Schools (RPS).
When I read of the handling by RPS of federally funded ChromeBooks — an inventory of nearly 45,000 with over 20,000 unused and nearly 2,000 more unaccounted for — to support a student population of 21,000 — I was not surprised.
But when I discovered that gang activity in elementary and secondary schools is not among those transgressions reported to police, I was pretty surprised, even given that it is Richmond.
RPS parents should be enraged.
Standards for defining student infractions and school system responses to those activities are much in the news. School shooters have invariably been bad actors in school. “Everybody knew” or “kids were scared” of him. He passed a background check anyway and bought a gun.
So, I decided to get a feel in one of Virginia’s progressive districts for what is reported to law enforcement and what is not. Where better to go than breaking-the-school-to-prison-pipeline in Richmond?
RPS publishes a Student Code of Responsible Ethics (SCORE). It defines the policy of the RPS regarding student infractions and the responses by the schools to those infractions.
It groups infractions into six Categories:
- Category A: Behaviors that impede the Academic Progress (BAP) of the student or of other students;
- Category B: Behaviors related to School Operations (BSO) that interfere with the daily operation of school procedures;
- Category C: Relationship Behaviors (RB) create a negative relationship between two or more members of the school community (No physical harm is done.);
- Category D: Behaviors of a Safety Concern (BSC) create unsafe conditions for students, staff, and/or visitors to the school;
- Category E: Behaviors that Endanger Self or Others (BESO). These behaviors endanger the health, safety, or welfare of either the student or others in the school community;
- Category F: Persistently Dangerous (PD) Behaviors described in the Virginia’s Unsafe School Choice Policy required by federal law.
It categorizes responses at five Levels:
- Level 1 responses are intended to prevent further behavioral issues while keeping the student in school;
- Level 2 “administrative responses and interventions are designed prevent further behavior issues and keep the student in school. Depending upon the severity of the behavior, short-term removal of the student from the classroom may be appropriate;
- Level 3. “Dependent upon the severity, chronic nature of the behavior and/or safety concerns, Level 3 behaviors may result in the student’s short-term removal from school;
- Level 4. “Some Level 4 behaviors require a report to the superintendent or superintendent’s designee as outlined in the Code of Virginia § 22.1- 279.3:1. Local school board policy may require additional reporting. A referral to the superintendent or superintendent’s designee does not automatically result in a long-term suspension, change of placement or expulsion;
- Level 5 “responses are reserved for those behaviors that require a referral to the superintendent or designee. For preschool to grade three students, any suspension beyond three days must be referred to the superintendent or designee. A referral to the superintendent or designee may not automatically result in an expulsion, alternative placement, school reassignment, or long-term suspension.”
Categories A, B and C offenses appropriately are not reported to law enforcement.
Category F describes major felonies. Good to know police are called for bombings, rape, kidnapping, guns and murder.
Category D – Behaviors of a Safety Concern (BSC) “create unsafe conditions for students, staff, and/or visitors to the school,” lists 27 concerning behaviors and the appropriate responses to each. This is interesting.
Of the 27 Category D infractions, only four are reported to law enforcement — two alcohol offenses, stalking, and weapon possession or sale.
Among the Category D offenses not reported to law enforcement:
- Possession of drug paraphernalia;
- Cyberbullying that continues after intervention;
- Harassment;
- Fire related: possessing items that could be used to set or cause a fire or produce large amounts of smoke;
- Inciting or causing a substantial disturbance to the operation of school or the safety of staff and/or students;
- Exposing body parts, lewd or indecent public behavior;
- Physical contact of a sexual nature – patting body parts, pinching, tugging clothing;
- Stealing money or property using physical force (no weapon involved);
- Trespassing;
- Possessing dangerous instruments/substances that could be used to inflict harm upon another.
Readers will have their own views on whether any of those should be reported to law enforcement. Certainly, some have been associated with school shooters, but that does not mean that every incident should require the involvement of the police.
Realistically, a principal can get police involvement in a Category D offense if they think they need it by kicking up the subjective description of that offense to Category E.
Category E offenses include some pretty bad stuff, most of which are reported to law enforcement. Three actions that are not reported are:
- Fighting with minor injuries;
- Drugs: Being under the influence of controlled substances, illegal drugs, or synthetic hallucinogens or unauthorized prescription medications;
- Gang-Related: Engaging in threatening or dangerous behavior that is gang-related as defined in §18.2-46.1.
The drugs and gangs provisions make me a little nervous. OK, a lot nervous.
Drugs. The police should at least want to know where the child got the drugs and whether they were brought into the school or obtained inside the school. Child protective services will wish to check out the home environment.
Gang activity. As for the gang activity, RPS loses me entirely.
We must presume that the Richmond School Board considers gang activity in schools to be a school-to prison pipeline issue rather than a gangs-to-prison pipeline issue.
Any thought for the kids in those schools that are not in gangs?
Responses to drugs and gangs. We note that gang activity and drug possession can be handled with a Level 3 response — “may result in the student’s short-term removal from school.” May? No report to the RPS Superintendent is required in a Level 3 response.
We can be pretty sure that the gangs understand the flexibility permitted to the school personnel in reporting their activity. There is no indication in SCORE that the Richmond School Board considered that the principal and staff might be scared of the gangs.
Code of Virginia § 18.2-46.1 cited in the SCORE rules offers definitions of crimes by gangs:
- “Act of violence” means those felony offenses described in subsection A of § 19.2-297.1.;
- “Criminal street gang” means any ongoing organization, association, or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, (i) which has as one of its primary objectives or activities the commission of one or more criminal activities; (ii) which has an identifiable name or identifying sign or symbol; and (iii) whose members individually or collectively have engaged in the commission of, attempt to commit, conspiracy to commit, or solicitation of two or more predicate criminal acts, at least one of which is an act of violence, provided such acts were not part of a common act or transaction;
- Predicate criminal act (see description in law).
What to do. Richmond is playing with fire. My input: mandate calling the police for gang and drug activity in the schools.
