California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed into law Monday a bill that now bans suspensions for willfully defiant students in grades kindergarten through eight.
The law, which goes into effect July 1, 2020, permanently bans suspensions for disruptive students in grades four and five, and prohibits suspensions for the same behaviors for five years in grades six through eight.
The legislation expands existing law that bans suspensions for willful defiance by students in kindergarten through grade three.
“SB 419 puts the needs of kids first,” said state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D), the author of the bill, reported the Sacramento Bee.
Civil rights activist Dolores Huerta also said, “I strongly believe that SB 419 will bring justice to California youth by eliminating suspensions for disruption and defiance, putting an end to discriminatory discipline policies and instituting restorative justice practices,” according to the Bee.
The new law, which is based on controversial disparate impact statistics that find black and other minority students are disproportionately suspended for disruptive behavior, must now be implemented in both traditional public and charter schools.
“These particular kinds of suspension are being used to harm young people and especially black people in particular,” said David Turner, with the Brothers, Sons, Selves Coalition, part of the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, which cosponsored the bill.
“When we talk about racial equity, this bill is racial equity,” he said.
However, attorney Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and chair of the board of directors of the Center for New Black Leadership, told Breitbart News the outcome of the California policy is “depressingly predictable.”
“Just as we’ve seen in every other school district that has reduced or banned student suspensions and expulsions in order to eliminate racial disparities in school discipline, violence and chaos in those schools will increase – substantially,” he explained. “The victims of such violence and chaos will be other minority students whose learning environment will be disrupted by the presence of students who should’ve been disciplined.”
Kirsanow emphasized that without suspensions and expulsions acting as deterrents, “the behavior of disruptive students will get worse.”
“California has thrown in the towel,” he said. “Its students are being sacrificed to the gods of political correctness.”