Tasha Hunter, a substitute teacher and mother of three, stood calmly amidst the hundreds of students cheering and protesting for disciplinary reform at the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) administration building Tuesday afternoon.
She knew all too well why the crowd was angry and frustrated.
“I had to step in as a substitute in a class,” Hunter said. “And [the teacher I was substituting for] immediately named a specific student by name. ‘That child,’ she told me, ‘do not hesitate in kick him out. Do not let him stress you out.’ And when he walked into class, I was upfront with him: ‘I am not going kick you outta class; I’m going to work with you.’ And whattya know? He wanted to stay in class. He wanted to work.”
Launched by a coalition of nonprofits and community organizations, the Every Student Matters (ESM) campaign seeks to address this exact problem: the unilateral ability of teachers to remove students from class without protocol, former warnings, or precedence.
Read more at the Long Beach Post
Also, read LBUSD Votes to Improve Discipline and Keep Kids In School at Liberty Hill Foundation Blog