When an 8th grader in Texas Lewisville Independent School District overheard a boy tell another classmate, “Don’t come to school tomorrow," she didn't think much of it at first. But as the day went on the words began to sound more sinister as she replayed them in her head, and she decided he needed to tell someone.
As The Dallas Morning News reports, the girl, who is Black, messaged her friends about the boy's words, saying, “this is genuinely scaring the sh– out of me."
As word of what she heard got back to the assistant principal, it was determined that the girl, who is Black, made a false accusation about school safety and she would be suspended for three days followed by 73 days — the rest of eighth-grade — in an alternative school.
"At a time when schools, and children, are told to stay vigilant to prevent the next shooting, Lewisville ISD’s response exposed the Black eighth-grader to a level of harsh discipline that research shows has a disproportionate impact on children of color and potentially devastating effects as students navigate the beginning of their lives," The Morning News' report stated.
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Director of Student Services at Lewisville schools, Rebecca Clark, said the district did not punish the girl for reporting a safety concern and school administrators “considered disciplinary consequences when students have spread rumors rather than following the appropriate steps to notify a trusted adult or using LISD’s anonymous reporting options to report concerning statements they may have heard."
The girl's mother, Lisa Youngblood, has refused to send her daughter to the alternative school and instead had her complete as much work as possible at home while she appealed the decision. During that time, the 13-year-old had panic attacks, nightmares, and withdrew from her friends.
“Discipline that takes a girl out of her school has been shown to lead to poor outcomes,” said Rebecca Epstein, director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality’s Initiative on Gender Justice & Opportunity at Georgetown Law. “It distances her from her school and her peers. She no longer has the same strong connections or trust in authority figures.”
Lewisville ISD spokeswoman Amanda Brim said the district “cannot treat a threat to a campus with anything less than the full weight of a police response and code of conduct consequences.”
“It is not OK for students — intentionally or not — to cause a disruption to the educational environment of hundreds of their classmates by spreading rumors,” she said in a statement.
Assistant Principal Sharla Samples said at an appeals hearing that the girl was sent to an alternative school because she had several hours to report her concerns to the school’s tip line or the district’s anonymous threat reporting app, STOPit. But when she texted friends instead, she had a “great impact.”
“Several people were scared about the safety of the school because her messages started spreading. Communication had to be sent out to the whole school community … which in itself worried some parents,” Samples said, adding that the family of the boy who originally made the comment started to fear for his safety.
But Youngblood wasn't buying it. “We are teaching kids: If you see something, you say something,” Youngblood said during the hearing. “Kids are kids. They may not always get it right. But she heard something that was concerning, and within a 21-minute span of mentioning to a friend, I was in the know and I was speaking with Ms. Samples.”
During the hearing, Lakeview Principal Beri Deister questioned the girl, asking why she messaged her friends in the group chats.
“I just wanted to make sure all of my friends knew, and that they were safe," the girl replied.
“How did it go from ‘Don’t come to school’ to guns?” Deister asked.
The girl replied: “Today, that’s what you think of.”
After a second appeal from Youngblood, the school finally walked back the punishment, saying in a letter that “the student did not intend to cause the disruption that resulted."
“Restorative practices and further supportive instruction for the student on ways to report concerns to school officials are appropriate,” it read.
But the girl told her mother,, “I don’t feel better. I don’t feel happy.” The school’s response made her feel like a criminal, she said.
Read the full story over at The Dallas Morning News.