Teenager Dwayne Powe Jr. got a suspension in eighth grade. He didn't get into a fight. He wasn't caught with drugs. He committed no crime.
"I actually was asking for a pencil," Powe said.
Powe said his class began an exercise and he asked to borrow a pencil from another student. That's when his teacher told Powe he was being disruptive and made him leave class. Powe tried explaining he had only asked for a pencil, but that only dug his hole deeper, he said.
He was technically suspended for "willful defiance".
Nearly 200,000 California students who were suspended for willful defiance last year can relate to Powe's story.
What constitutes willful defiance is somewhat vague, but it generally allows teachers to remove students from the classroom if their behavior is thought to be disruptive or defiant. It's the most common reason California students were suspended—and students of color are overwhelmingly targeted.
But there is a growing consensus that keeping kids out of the classroom for non-violent behavioral issues has done more harm than good, and students of color are paying the heaviest cost for this policy.
[For more of this story, written by Michael Bott and Ty Chandler, go to http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/20/california-school-suspensions-racial-racism/23724843/]
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