SCHENECTADY — School board member Jamaica Miles and other parents have expressed outrage over the suspension of 14 high schoolers, claiming the incident is the latest in a pattern of harsh disciplinary measures being disproportionately levied against students of color.
Miles said the students at the recently opened Steinmetz Freshman Leadership Academy, including her daughter, were suspended after they gathered in a classroom to watch an argument play out between two girls who were supposed to fight. But the verbal dispute ended when an adult and a security monitor intervened and peacefully dispersed the crowd.
The community activist said she first learned that her daughter had been suspended for two days when she went to the Oakwood Avenue school on Oct. 17 to bring the girl money for a homecoming celebration. Miles recalled that she was approached in the school’s vestibule by a building administrator, who, with other parents nearby, told her about the incident…