Stories from the ACLU of Washington

Students of color, disabled students, and low-income students are all disciplined more often and more harshly than their classmates, despite evidence that they don’t misbehave more often or engage in more troubling behavior.

On Monday, I did something that I have never done before. Instead of just signing an online petition, I left my laptop at home and participated in the Reproductive Health and Rights Lobby Day in Olympia. I was joined by my dear friend Mary and a few hundred pro-choice activists from across the state of Washington.  It was announced that all but  four legislative districts were represented.

We’ve all heard the saying: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Unfortunately, this approach has guided discipline policies in most Washington schools for decades. Misbehaving students routinely are suspended or expelled – despite overwhelming evidence that such practices don’t work.

As an ACLU-WA intern this fall, Brooke Glass-O’Shea has researched and analyzed a variety of issues, notably Seattle’s Community Police Commission recommendations and a proposal for sobriety checkpoints.  A self-described “policy nerd,” Brooke says that very specific legal issues are her favorite to research because she loves the details of the law.

The ACLU-WA staff usually can tell when Patti Hackney is in our office because of the goodies that appear – scones one week, coffee cake another week, and occasionally smoked salmon. In addition to her passion for working on good causes, Patti loves cooking for groups.  “I get great joy out of feeding people,” she explains.