What the DOJ Can’t Do on School Discipline Reform

By Julianne Hing, Colorlines

“The Justice Department cannot station a monitor inside every classroom or along every school hallway. And that’s what some people in Meridian fear, that the federal government’s reach may end just at the moment that the town requires the most handholding.

‘Mississippi is just the tip of the iceberg,’ said Jones. ‘Meridian just got caught with its pants down.’

In the end, sustainable social change will require more than just a powerful federal monitor, says the NAACP’s Derrick Johnson. It’s not the 44-page (PDF) federal document that will protect Meridian kids from future abuses. Instead, it’ll require sustained parent engagement and an empowered, active community to stay on top of the district and make the pile of papers live. Even the most hopeful watchers of Meridian’s reform say it will take a powerful combination of federal muscle, local political will, an organized public and a willing school district to make any lasting change.”

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