SAN ANTONIO – A group of high school students wants changes to the San Antonio Independent School District’s student code of conduct and Bill of Rights.
Some students are concerned about some of the policing language that’s included in the document.
“One of our friends, he was loud at his lunch table one day and a police officer came to address it instead of the vice principal or the administrator. And (my friend) felt kind of threatened in that way,” said Melanie Harrell, a student at Young Women’s Leadership Academy.
Harrell said this is just one of the experiences students are concerned about.
“We’re not asking to eliminate police officers on campus. We do believe that they are there to play a role in keeping us safe and we do value that, but we do want them to take — to not act as administrators on campus because we feel like that’s how they’re acting,” Harrell said.
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Some students said they didn’t know about the changes that were being made to the student conduct policy.
“I didn’t know about the Bill of Rights until my friend told me about these meetings,” said Aysha Darilek, a student at Advanced Learning Academy.
The Bill of Rights is a statement of beliefs. There are 10 of them, including the right to a safe, caring and welcoming school environment.
Vanessa Hurd, chief of external relations for SAISD, said the district held focus groups and conducted student surveys as it crafted the student Bill of Rights last year. She said the district also held several meetings with parents, administrators and teachers.
“We've had a code of conduct every single year, but we wanted a document that was more robust in talking about what students wanted,” Hurd said.
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Hurd said creating the Bill of Rights is part of a broader strategy to implement social and emotional work on campuses.
The group of student activists made requests in a letter that included adding language about limiting school policing practices. In the letter, another request was to make discipline reports that include student information available to the public.
The group wants race, age, school campus, reason for disciplinary action and the actions taken in the reports.
“We're going to be working from here on out to really continue to look at discipline differently, to train adults, to work with discipline differently, and to really look at social and emotional growth as a cornerstone of our work on campuses,” Hurd said.
Hurd said principals were trained on the policies. The district also has resources available for schools as the district begins to implement its social and emotional behavior curriculum.