Discipline Practices at Paragon Charter Academy Under Scrutiny by Parents of Students of Color

Student enrollment at both public and private charter schools have high numbers of students of color, most of whom are considered low-income by federal poverty standards, and yet several things they all share in common are disproportionate discipline rates of suspensions and expulsions while simultaneously failing to produce students proficient academically in reading and math. Paragon Charter Academy in Jackson Michigan is no exception.

While ranking in Test Scores as Average across the State, Paragon's proficiency test scores demonstrate 39% of students are proficient in Math while 49% are proficient in Reading, and only 18% proficient in Social Studies.1 With a Equity score below average, Paragon has a 54% minority enrollment, of which 26% of the total population are black students. In reference to Paragon, according to GreatSchools.org, "Underserved students at this school may be falling behind other students in the State, and this school may have significant achievement gaps."1

This kind of data impacting minority students, who often times are a significant population as a whole, is reflective of discipline policies that disproportionately affect black and other minority students who fall in the category of being underserved and simultaneously falling behind academically. This trend is seen nationally as black and brown students are suspended and expulsed at higher rates than their white counterparts.

According to the Learning Policy Institute, "Educators consistently exclude Black students from school at the highest rate, with more than 1 in 8 Black students (12%) receiving one or more out-of-school suspensions in 2017–18. In that year, educators also suspended Native American students at rates higher than the national average (7% vs. 5%)."2

These trends lead scholars to identify schools with a similar rating as a sort of schools-to-prison nexus, where schools led by predominately white leadership with high enrollment populations of minority students with underperforming scores and high disproportionate rates of suspensions and expulsions, ultimately see these students as later drop outs with either juvenile arrests records and or adult interaction with the criminal legal system. 3

While Paragon Charter Academy in Jackson, Michigan isn't an exception, their discipline data shows that in the year 2022-223 Paragon suspended students nearly three times higher than the state's average. This trend has been growing since Covid-19. 4 As such Paragon has had a history of poor equity policies and punitive practices involving students of color. In 2019 the case of a black 8 year old Paragon elementary student went viral as she was denied a school picture accused of violating the school dress code because of her red braids. 5

Reviewing discipline policies and more importantly, the way those policies are implemented within our community schools is important toward insuring academic fidelity and institutional equity. Parents of students at Paragon have raised concerns for years about the public charter school's academic performance and discipline policies. A recent case was voiced by La Toyia Dempsey, a mother of a currently expusled 12 year old student of Paragon. According this this parent, her son was persistently agitated through physical gestures and contact by a white female student. Once the black male student reacted and responded to the physical contact by the other student, the black male student was suspended and ultimately expusled until 2024.

According to the mother of this student, video footage of the entire incident was edited to only show her son's reaction, although school officials admitted seeing the full footage where the white student initiated the physical contact. The mother was not afforded an opportunity to appeal the decision and as of now her son remains at home. Her story is not uncommon. The School-to-Prison Nexus, formerly known as a "pipeline," is continually plaguing the schools within our community and require parents, educators and scholars to work together to find actionable steps to dismantling these pervasive practices.

Below you can read the full story of the expulsion of LaToya Dempsey's son.

Charter School Conceals Footage to Justify Suspension of Black Student

On Wednesday, September 6th, 2023, student Smith, a 6th grade Black male, was suspended from Paragon Charter Academy after being involved in an altercation with a 6th grade white female student. Unedited lunchroom footage evidence showed that the altercation had been initiated by the white female student, yet the white female student has not been suspended while the original footage was edited to show only the black students actions.

Ms. LaToya Dempsey, the mother of student Smith called the school on the morning of Friday, September 8th immediately upon regaining access to mobile services after having been informed of the suspension. No one was available to speak with her. She left a voice message for Sue Delie, Dean of Middle School, and also Principal Kriech, yet no one returned her phone call. Ms. Dempsey did not receive any communication (call, voicemail, email) regarding this suspension until Monday, September 11th after going to the school.

On the morning of Monday, Sept. 11th, Ms. Dempsey took her son to school after receiving neither verbal communication nor messaging contact from the school over the weekend. Once she got to the school she was acknowledged with apologies by Sue Delie, regarding not returning her call.

Sue Delie then explained to Ms. Dempsey and student Smith, her perception of the incident. Ms. Dempsey then asked if there was video available to view. As Ms. Dempsey and student Smith were shown the video, Sue Delie walked them through what had taken place – not informing Ms. Dempsey nor Student Smith that she was showing them only a portion of the incident.

Ms. Dempsey was then informed that student Smith is suspended but it was up to the board if he would serve a 10-day suspension or a longer-term suspension. Ms. Dempsey and student Smith then left the school under the impression that the school would reach out soon to inform them of the next steps.

After 3 days of waiting to be contacted, Ms. Dempsey contacted the school via phone on the early morning of Thursday, September 14th to find out how long the suspension would last and when the board meeting would occur. Ms. Dempsey spoke with Sue Delie on the phone and Sue Delie again apologized acknowledging that the school needed to reach out and assured Ms. Dempsey that Principal Kriech would be reaching out to her that day to go over things.

Ms. Dempsey received a call from Principal Kriech around 4pm on Thursday, September 14th. He stated the board meeting would be held on Tues. Sept. 19th at 7:00am and that he would send paperwork for her to sign. He stated that her preference and consent would be needed for either a closed session or an open session at the board meeting. Ms. Dempsey opted for a closed session.

Ms. Dempsey received the aforementioned paperwork on Saturday September 16th . The board meeting would be held on Tuesday, Sept. 19th . Ms. Dempsey made it into the meeting and board president Kevin Sykes asked if she had gone over all the evidence that had been sent to her pertaining to this case.

Ms. Dempsey was then handed, by Principal Kriesch, a packet of paperwork and documents, several of which she had not seen until that moment. Included in them were her sons grade progress report, her sons’ behavior charts from the previous year and witness statements from the incident. She was asked to sign the paperwork. Ms. Dempsey informed Principal Kriesch and the board that she had not received any of the ‘evidence’ in the paperwork that he had mailed her. Principal Kriesch responded, ‘Sure you did’.

Ms. Dempsey reached into her purse and pulled out the full stack of paperwork that had been sent to her. She showed Principal Kriesch and the board members the paperwork, while reiterating that she had not received the pertinent information pertaining to alleged evidence being used at this hearing. A board member spoke out and stated that the evidence was not sent out because they actually wait to present all the evidence at the board meeting so families are able to present their cases the day of the meeting.

As the hearing continued Ms. Dempsey mentioned that after speaking with her son at home to better understand the entire situation, that he filled in many gaps that had been left out by the limited information shared by Sue Delie and Principal Kriesch. Ms. Dempsey only found out what happened from her son and neice who was a witness to the incident. According to her son student Smith and her niece, a witness, the white female student initiated the incident by hurling insults at student Smith. The female student escalated the incident when she saw that student Smith wasn’t cowed by her insults and eventually began to kick student Smith under the table. Student Smith told her to stop kicking him, she continued and eventually swung her hand at him and smacked student Smith's face twice.

Ms. Tabitha, Mr. Q and Ms. Delie were all within visual sight of the incident. Student Smith asked his friend to go get a teacher. By the time the teacher was summoned student Smith had all he could take and rose from his seat, went around the table, passed one of the adults who was standing at the table and engaged the white student.

This was not the first time that student Smith had sought help against the assaults and bullying of girls within the classroom (2 white girls and 1 black girl previously) and had been told on numerous occasions, ‘"it’s a girl’," as if to say – you should be able to handle it as a boy. Student Smith had little faith that he would be protected and supported in this instance. Ms. Dempsey then informed the board that the video she had been shown was edited to show only the moment student Smith defended himself. Yet Sue Delie implied that the video shown to Ms. Dempsey was the full incident.

Ms. Dempsey then inquired of Principal Kreisch if he recalled when she’d asked if there was more to the video. He responded, Yes, that he did see the other student swing across the table towards student Smith but he was not sure if it landed. Ms. Dempsey then asked why that part of the video was withheld from her. Again, a board member spoke out and stated – ‘We all here do not think your son was the initiator of the fight’.

Ms. Dempsey asked during the meeting that if she felt like things were not handled fairly, would she be able to appeal the decision?’ Board President Kevin Sykes responded, "yes." The board then made the decision to suspend Student Smith from Paragon Charter Academy and all schools in the county for January 22nd of 2024. The board also elected to not provide any school support (academic work, teacher support etc.) to Student Smith.

After leaving the meeting and reading the steps of the appeal and how it works Ms. Dempsey saw that it is the responsibility of the school to give the appeal form to the parent upon request.

Ms. Demspey returned to the school early on Sept. 25th to request the appeal form. She was told by Principal Kreisch that the school has no appeal form nor information regarding appeals but that Jonathan Arneberg, the board relations representative would be in charge of the appeals process.

Principal Kreisch stated he would contact Jonathan and reach back to Ms. Dempsey to give her whatever information is shared so she can get the appeals process started. Sept. 26th Ms. Dempsey returned to the school due to no call as she assumed there was likely a time limit that she didn’t want to miss. She asked again for the appeal form and was given a student responsibility packet by the secretary with a letter that she’d never received but stapled to the back of the student responsibility packet – the school had highlighted a part that stated "pursuant to the student code of conduct all board decisions are final."

End of Story

(submitted to AMEN 4 Youth on October 28th, 2023 by LaToya Dempsey)

Endnotes

1 Paragon Charter Academy 6/10 GreatSchools Rating

https://www.greatschools.org/michigan/jackson/225-Paragon-Charter-Academy/?searchWhatType=autosuggest&searchLocationType=undefined&searchWhatKeywordValue=para#Equity_overview

2 Pushed Out: Trends and Disparities in Out-of-School Suspension

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

By Melanie Leung-Gagné Jennifer McCombs Caitlin Scott Daniel J. Losen https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/crdc-school-suspension-report#:~:text=Educators%20consistently%20exclude%20Black%20students,5%25).

3 ACLU Juvenile Justice Report

https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/juvenile-justice-school-prison-pipeline

4 Michigan School Data (Supensions & Expulsions)

https://www.mischooldata.org/parent-dashboard-page?PageUrl=https://legacy.mischooldata.org/ParentDashboard/ParentDashboardExpulsion.aspx?LocationId=S%2c10092%2c1461%2c88

5 WILX Eight-year-old girl denied School Picture because of her Hair

https://www.wilx.com/content/news/Eight-year-old-girl-denied-school-picture-because-of-her-hair-562449021.html

About the Author

Hakim Nathaniel Crampton is an Education Activist, author, leadership trainer and award winning poet. Hakim is a former president of Jackson College Men of Merit and a graduate of Pontiac Business Institute. After spending 15 years in prison for a wrongful murder conviction, and upon release in 2006 Hakim became a voice for today's youth, leading efforts to decrease violence in the community, working tirelessly to improve the educational outcomes for black youth in Jackson, Lansing and Detroit and advocates for racial and social justice within systems and institutions inherently biased. Hakim recently completed a 4 year term on the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission and currently works for JustLeadershipUSA as a Senior Movement & Capacity Building Specialist. Hakim is the founding director of The Academic Mentoring & Education Network known as A.M.E.N. 4 Youth based in Jackson, Michigan. To learn more visit hakimcrampton.com