West Virginia lawmakers are headed toward again giving teachers more power to remove disruptive students from classrooms, even as state education officials are looking for ways to keep vulnerable kids in school.
Over the last couple of years, state education officials have been trying to reduce school suspensions. Children with disabilities, students in foster care, students from low-income families and Black students are more likely to be suspended than their peers, according to state data.
But last year, lawmakers passed a bill that gave teachers wider discretion to suspend middle and high school students. Now they want to extend it to elementary schools.
A House bill allowed teachers to suspend students for being “disruptive” while a more narrowly written Senate proposal specified that students needed to be “violent, threatening, or intimidating.” And schools could involve law enforcement if parents don’t pick them up.
On Friday, the House passed the Senate bill with minor changes. It will have to be approved a final time by the Senate before going to Gov. Jim Justice.
The legislation says suspended students could be sent to alternative learning settings where they could still receive instruction. But most counties don’t have alternative learning, according to Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association.
But Lee said he supported the bill.
“There are teachers that are actually being assaulted, and other students that are being assaulted,” he said.
During Friday’s floor debate, Del. Elliott Pritt, a Republican from Fayette County and a teacher, said he supports the bill because some students are afraid to go to school and some parents are pulling them out because of behavior issues in classrooms.
He noted that schools fulfill lots of roles in a community, from offering clothing closets and free lunch to counselors and social workers.
“How much do we expect our schools to do?” he said. “We need to put the responsibility of raising children back into the laps of the parents where it belongs.”
Del. Anitra Hamilton, D-Monongalia, who voted against the bill, offered sympathy to teachers but said students are crying out for emotional support.
“No teacher should have to suffer violence,” she said. “They should not have to suffer repeated disturbances in our classrooms. But when we leave it vague to where they feel threatened, we all know that some people are threatened and intimidated by presence alone.”