MacGyver Biniak

Elements of Student Diversity: Barriers to Education in New Orleans

Following Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans was promised a world-class
public school system, focusing on students best interests (Belway, 1). Students and parents were
looking for this be a catalyst of innovative education practices that reformed the school system
while nurturing and educating all students in the area. Unfortunately, this promise has not been
fulfilled and students are regularly subjected to brutal and coldly punitive environments
(Belway, 1). New Orleans also lacks equal access to educational services for students with
disabilities. Shakti Belway, in her work Access Denied, looks into New Orleans failing school
system, confronts high levels of excessive discipline in a low-income African-American area and
looks to address the needs of special education students in the Recovery School District (RSD).
While New Orleans looked to confront the education of students following Hurricane
Katrina, the RSD has a deeper issue prevalent in their district; African-Americans are being
suspended and expelled at an alarming rate. Ninety-eight percent of students in the district are
African-American and seventy-nine percent of students are low-income (Belway, 3). Out-ofschool suspensions occur twice as often as other Louisiana school districts, with almost twentynine percent of students of students in the RSD being suspended in the 2007-08 school year
(Belway, 3). The following year there was a total of 6,702 out-of-school suspensions in a student
population of 12,871 (Belway, 3). Suspensions are often results of minor misbehavior such as
dress code problems and students arriving late to school or class. In comparison, St. Tammany
and St. Charles are two schools located in the surrounding area but have a much lower rate of
African-American and low-income students. These schools have suspension rates of eight and
four percent, respectively.

Expulsions are at an extreme level in the RSD as well. In the 2007-08 school year, the
expulsion rate in the RSD was almost twice the statewide rate, and ten times the national rate
(Belway, 3). Students are treated inappropriately in the classroom as well, constantly being
subjected to ineffective disciplinary procedures such as forcibly handcuffing them to furniture,
brutally slamming them into the ground, kneeing them in the back while on the ground, striking
them in the head and cutting short their education (Belway, 2). These cruel and inappropriate
forms of discipline, along with the lop-sided number of suspension and expulsion, help to show
that students in the RSD are being treated unfairly and something has to be done.
One practice that has helped to discipline students, reduce suspensions and facilitate
better understanding with teachers is implementing restorative justice circles. These circles have
students talk about the root of the problem and why they act in ways that could get them
suspended to teachers and counselors (Belway, 5). All parties listen respectfully, develop a plan
confronting the issue then sign a contract with their plan in mind. Those involved find new
information about each other and students have seen lots of positives from these meetings. RSD
student Dana Alexander had a restorative justice circle with all of her teachers after having
behavior and authoritative issues. She developed a plan and now has a positive outlook on the
circles stating, people need to know these circles work. They help a lot of students, make us
safer and make the school a better place. And fewer students get suspended (Belway, 5).
Belway also looks into special education and the alarming trend that some students are
completely denied enrollment as a result of their disability, forced to attend schools lacking the
resources necessary to serve them and punished with suspensions in record numbers (10).
Federal law P.L. 94-142 revolutionized the treatment of students with disabilities in 1975 but the
RSD continues to deny students with the greatest needs from an equitable education. Belway

reports recent injustices in the RSD, including ignoring students individualized education plans,
choosing to treat students with disabilities as regular students, handing out worksheets to blind
students and having inadequate staff, materials and training for special education students (1113). While Belway identifies the problems of the RSD, she fails to address what teachers can do
to better identify and educate special education students in order to create an environment
conducive to learning.
Overall, I believe that the author addressed several key issues in the RSD that must be
implemented immediately. Adopting a zero-tolerance policy against brutality and training all
staff members to report child abuse would undeniably help the RSD, but these policies should
have been implemented decades ago and should be mandatory in all schools. Requiring schools
to enroll a percentage of special needs students and increasing the resources for these students
can help to combat the problems that the RSD is having with the department. I would
recommend training for teachers to facilitate the increasing number of special education students
and the new resources implemented in the classroom. Belway failed to address this; I believe
training teachers would be more critical for special need students than creating a new policy.
The most applicable recommendation Belway offers is embracing restorative justice
circles and other evidence-based alternatives to school discipline for all staff members. This
initiative is positively received by students, producing encouraging results rather than suspending
students and allows for students and teachers to have a better understanding about one another. I
believe that this could have a large impact when I am teaching, especially with students that
come from different backgrounds from myself. The positive outlook and new plan circles create
intrigue me the most. These could help me to facilitate student learning in my classroom,
particularly with struggling students, allowing me to become a more effective teacher.