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In New Mexico in the school district, which disproportionately issued severe punishments to radical students, he says he dramatically reduced his long-term suspension.
Two years ago, New -Mexico in the depths and propublica reported that the children of the indigenous in New -Mexico face a higher rate harsh school punishmentcauses the State Department of Justice A study of civil rights In the discipline of the school district practice, they are largely responsible for inconsistency.
According to January e-mail from the head of the Galep-dakkinli district schools, the number of students expelled from the area by 90 days and longer, which decreased from 21 children during the 2021-22 academic year to six next year, and only one last year in Last year. Of these 28 long -term removal, 86%or 24 cases involved local students.
But the state refused to deeply provide New Mexico with full, unpainted discipline data over the years, citing federal state reports that regulate educational records, which does not make it possible to check these claims independently.
Now the area looks more prudent in the long -term costs, leaving them for serious, potentially dangerous violations.
As an example: from 2016-17 to 2019-20, before the changes, Gallup-Mckinley said that long-term removal was used as punishment for devastating behavior (“petty behavior”). BUT IN THE CASES HYATT FOR 2021-22 Cluding Firearms Case, He wrote.
In addition to the data, Hayat said the area made changes to politics to better interact with students and prevent behavioral problems. He replaced the district administrator who has been disciplined by students who has since retired, he said.
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In 2022, information organizations launched a detailed analysis of state school disciplines, which showed that students of the indigenous residents disproport the most severe forms of punishment: exceptions from school within 90 days or more and referral to law enforcement agencies.
Using the reports on the discipline of the district received in the state education department, information organizations found that the Gallup-Mckinley, which boasts the largest local student body than other students between 2016 and 2020. At the time the head of the district Named the conclusions “fully false”, But the area’s own data was contrary to this requirement.
The Prosecutor General of New -Mexico Raoul Torres, headed by the Ministry of Justice and his new civil rights department, initiated a review of the issue at the end of 2023. Its investigators were also unable to get complete, non -relevant data from the education department, according to the e -mails between the New Mexico agencies.
The state Justice Ministry’s indicators also faced delays as it tried to get students from Gallup-Mckinley, show emails. In the second, since August 21, 2024 and October 17, 2024, investigators took the school district to the task of violating the legislative term in response to their inspection requests to the law on state reports.
Other emails in 2023 and 2024 reflected the frustration of investigators about repeated efforts to meet with state education officials that could provide more details and answer the questions.
In early June 2024, the special lawyer of the State Department Sulvul Sulvelian urgently asked for a personal meeting with the officials of the education department to discuss the discipline of students. The meeting was held on June 20. But by July 1, Sullivan noted that investigators still needed more details. And in August, Sullivan repeatedly addressed the answers about the missing data of the head of the department of education.
The press -secretary of the State Department of Justice Lauren Rodriguez stated in New Mexico in late January that the agency’s civil rights investigation is ongoing. Hayat said he believed his office had fulfilled the requests of the department.
In January’s email exchange with reporter, the depth of New Mexico, and the propublica reporting, claiming that discipline practices in Gallup-Mckinley were not as rigid as the district reports to the state.
He said that after the news headlines in 2022, the internal review revealed extensive data entry into the quarterly discipline of the district’s students. In particular, he stated that the punishments reported by the state should be expelled as recorded as suspension. (The district also changed its expulsion definition in such a way as to reduce the number of severe punishments: during the analysis of the editorial offices, the area determined the expulsion as a 90 -day removal; expulsion is currently defined as constant removal.)
But New -Mexico in depth and found propublica This removal of students from school for 90 days and longer does not depend on what these removal is much higher for the Gallup-Mckinley than the rest of the state.
Following the meeting with the Torres on the Investigation of the State Department of Justice in September 2023, Hayat signed a contract with the financial consulting contract based in Kentucky, an unrestrained consultant. The contractor’s report showed that local students’ discipline rates were modest than other students but not high enough to be significant.
However, the company’s assessment did not include expulsion and did not conduct a specific analysis of the most severe punishment, as did the one that conducted information organizations.
