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NAACP targets school discipline policies

A mother's claim that Tarpon Springs High employees treated her son with inappropriate force prompts the civil rights group to set up a meeting for Oct. 11.

By NICOLE JOHNSON
Published September 14, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - The North Pinellas branch of the NAACP is pushing for the school system's investigation into an incident that resulted in the suspension of a Tarpon Springs High School senior.

But there's an even larger issue that needs attention, too, NAACP leaders say.

On Oct. 11, the branch, along with NAACP branches from St. Petersburg and Hillsborough County, will hold a meeting at the James Weldon Johnson library at 1059 18th Ave. S, St. Petersburg. They will meet to discuss discipline policies in the school system.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund will also be on hand to discuss how those policies affect minority students.

"We're trying to bring light to these issues and behaviors that must be changed," North Pinellas branch president Nathaniel Ramsey said at a news conference Tuesday. "Sensitivity training may be the answer; whatever it takes to bring about change."

Last year, the Times reported that black students in Pinellas and Hillsborough were suspended during the previous school year at disproportionately higher rates than students of other races. In Pinellas, nearly one of every four black students was hit with an out-of-school suspension. That was three times the rate for students of other races. NAACP officials said Tuesday they were gathering statistics on the issue.

The organization moved to hold the public hearing after being approached by Edyth Smith, a Tarpon Springs resident.

Smith alleges her children, whose names were not released, were treated with inappropriate force by Tarpon Springs High School employees.

On Aug. 9, Smith said her 17-year-old son got into an argument with a female student during dismissal.

A hall monitor, a school employee, pushed the teen into a wall in an attempt to break up the argument, Smith said. The student, who is a senior, was later suspended for two days.

Smith said the punishment and the school employee's behavior did not fit the offense.

"He was physically shoved by an adult because of a verbal exchange," said Smith, 35, during Tuesday's news conference. "That was inappropriate and unprovoked."

Tarpon Springs High School principal Kent Vermeer could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

School administrators are investigating the incident, school district spokesman Sterling Ivey said. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has forwarded a report on the incident to the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, said sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen.

The incident involving Smith's son comes a year after after she said her daughter's shoulder was dislocated by a school resource officer.

The student, 15, was standing around a fight at Tarpon Springs High School when a school resource officer, sheriff's Deputy Miguel Echevarria, attempted to intervene, according to her mother.

Smith said Echevarria grabbed her daughter, dislocating her shoulder. McMullen said federal medical privacy laws prohibited him from commenting on any injury the girl suffered.

The Sheriff's Office launched an internal investigation into the matter, but later closed the case, McMullen said.

"We found Deputy Echevarria did not violate any of the policies," McMullen said.

Neither the officer nor hall monitor were placed on leave during the investigations.

Ivey said rules regarding employee's physical contact with students is not a cut-and-dried policy.

"Corporal punishment is prohibited, but it's not a blanket policy that prohibits an employee from ever touching a student," Ivey said. "There are situations when an employee may have to intervene physically in situations such as student fights."

The NAACP meeting is open to the public, Ramsey said.

"We're doing this so parents realize they have an advocate," Ramsey said. "They can come forward if they have had any of these problems in their schools."

Times staff writer Tamara El-Khoury contributed to this report. Nicole Johnson can be reached at 727 771-4303 or njohnson@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 14, 2005, 09:38:24]