Published January 16, 2020

Students in Southeast Texas’ Beaumont ISD, one of the state’s longest-struggling school districts, were suspended at a rate more than six times the state average and far exceeding any other district with at least 1,000 kids last school year, a Houston Chronicle and Beaumont Enterprise analysis of state discipline data shows.

As districts across Texas have scaled back on suspensions and “zero tolerance” approaches to discipline in recent years, Beaumont has gone in the other direction, administering 46 suspensions per 100 students last year, the state’s highest rate over the last decade.

By comparison, the district with the state’s second-highest rate, Port Arthur ISD, issued 31 suspensions per 100 students. In the Greater Houston area, every large district reported fewer than 16 per 100. The state average was 7 per 100.

Beaumont’s suspension practices have coincided with dismal academic performance and behavior challenges afflicting the district, which barely eked out a C grade under the state’s accountability system in 2019. Frequent discipline particularly has impacted Beaumont’s black students, who comprise about 60 percent of the district’s population but received 87 percent of suspensions last school year.

“There has to be a better way,” said LaToya Traylor, whose 15-year-old son, Jamerson Bibbins, has received multiple suspensions for fighting and insubordination during his seven years in Beaumont. “There are some students who don’t have anybody, and they are labeled as problem children. I don’t believe any child is bad.”

According to Texas Education Agency data, 3,325 out of Beaumont’s 19,000 students were suspended last school year, missing a combined 17,500 days of school. About 400 children were banned for more than two weeks, with one student at Smith Middle School receiving 27 suspensions totaling 65 days of missed class.

Administrators cited fighting, insubordination, causing disruptions and skipping class as the most common reasons for suspending students.

In interviews and statements over the past several weeks, Beaumont Superintendent Shannon Allen and Board of Education President Thomas Sigee pledged to implement changes aimed at reducing the district’s reliance on suspensions. Both said they were unaware of the district’s far-above-average suspension rates until contacted for this story.

“There’s no backing away from the fact that those numbers are real,” said Sigee, who joined the board in May 2019. “When students are suspended, they’re not being educated. We’re going to have to formulate a plan to do much better than we are.”

Allen, a 23-year veteran of the district who became superintendent in July 2019, said district leaders are working to better implement strategies, such as restorative justice initiatives and the hiring of behavioral coordinators. She also called on residents to serve as stronger role models for children, declaring that “the behaviors we see in our schools are a reflection of what we see in Beaumont, Texas.”

“We’re doing a lot, but I will be frank and say we can do better and we will do better,” Allen said. “We have initiatives in place, and we’re not consistently following through on the things we have in place.”

About 85 percent of Beaumont students quality for free or reduced lunch, nearly 60 percent are black and about 45 percent live in a female-led household with no husband present — three of the strongest indicators researchers repeatedly have found for higher discipline rates nationwide. Black students, in particular, are four times more likely to receive suspensions than their white public school peers, according to federal data.

The district also continues to grapple with the effects of childhood psychological trauma that followed massive flooding from Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and Tropical Storm Imelda in September 2019.

Beaumont leaders have exacerbated the district’s discipline issues over the past several decade.

Excessive financial mismanagement resulted in widespread layoffs in the mid-2010s, prompting a dramatic spike in the district’s suspension rate. In subsequent years, Beaumont’s state-appointed governing board and its since-retired superintendent did not comprehensively address discipline in schools, leaving educators unprepared to handle students’ complex behavioral needs.

“These kids are disrupting the classroom to the point where they’re throwing everybody off track,” said Krystal Johnson, whose second-grade daughter has experienced bullying at Pietzsch-MacArthur Elementary School. “Not only are they affecting her learning, but they’re affecting her emotionally. … There’s never going to be a solution if it’s not acknowledged.”

Beaumont ISD parents listen to Superintendent Shannon Allen as she addresses a crowd of roughly 200 people during a community forum on discipline practices held Nov. 18 at the district’s administration building. Among Texas districts with at least 1,000 students, Beaumont ISD’s suspension rate ranked first in the state by a wide margin in 2018-19. less Beaumont ISD parents listen to Superintendent Shannon Allen as she addresses a crowd of roughly 200 people during a community forum on discipline practices held Nov. 18 at the district’s administration ... more Photo: Kim Brent / The Enterprise Photo: Kim Brent / The Enterprise Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Time out: Beaumont ISD leads state in suspensions, prompting promises of change 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

Old vs. new school attitudes

When a child acts out in a Texas public school, state law offers districts several options for “exclusionary discipline,” the removal of students from the classroom. The choices include in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, placement in an alternative campus or expulsion to a juvenile justice academy.

In recent years, out-of-school suspensions have drawn particular scrutiny from educators and researchers, who concluded that taking kids out the classroom harms children more than helps.

A seminal 2011 study by The Council for State Governments and Public Policy Research Institute, using data from millions of Texas children, found that roughly half of students subjected to more than 10 out-of-school suspensions ultimately landed in the juvenile justice system and/or failed to graduate high school.

“Instead of being disciplined at school, they’re being put into suspensions or the criminal justice system, and we’ve got to look at that and roll that back,” said state Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, who filed legislation last year to increase state tracking of out-of-school suspension data.

Recent attempts by researchers nationwide to isolate the impact of suspensions have produced mixed results, most often showing they cause small reductions in test scores and graduation rates.

State lawmakers have passed laws aimed at curbing suspensions, limiting their length to three days in the mid-1990s, and banning nearly all of them for homeless students and children younger than third grade in 2017.

Still, state law delegates wide discretion over discipline to districts, only mandating certain punishments for egregious or violent acts, such as assaulting a teacher or selling drugs at school. As a result, campus-level staff decide when and how to punish students in the vast majority of cases. Their decisions can be strongly influenced by administrative attitudes, district policies and training on disciplinary practices.

In Texas City ISD, about 40 miles southeast of Houston, Superintendent Rodney Cavness said he takes an approach considered more “old school” than many of his peers, setting strict expectations for student behavior. The district issued 24 suspensions for every 100 students in the district last school year, the Greater Houston area’s highest rate.

“We’re not here to raise everybody’s kids and deal with everyone’s societal issues,” Cavness said. “We don’t just kick kids to the curb. We’re not going to do that. But when kids are going to become disruptive to other kids trying to learn, that’s where I have a problem.”

In Everman ISD, south of Fort Worth, administrators issued 7 suspensions per 100 students last school year while serving a student demographic similar to Texas City ISD. Everman’s suspension rate has fallen by 79 percent over the past decade as administrators instituted a discipline task force, trained staff on new behavioral programs and held campus leaders accountable for their suspension data.

“It has changed the focus and the culture of the district as a whole,” said Felicia Donaldson, Everman’s assistant superintendent of student services. “We’re reshaping kids, we’re reshaping their thought process.”

Across Texas, suspensions are down about 30 percent over the past decade, while Beaumont’s use of exclusionary discipline has increased.

Most notably, five medium-sized districts that most frequently suspended students a decade ago — Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville, Everman and Lancaster ISDs, all located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex — since have combined to slash their rates by 55 percent. Like Beaumont, they all serve some of the state’s largest percentages of black and lower-income children.

‘Devastating’ cuts

In the early 2010s, Beaumont joined its Texas counterparts in cutting back on suspensions.

Then, in 2014, cascading scandals under then-superintendent Timothy Chargois stymied that progress. Poor financial management, lax accounting oversight and the embezzlement of $4 million by two high-ranking employees who served time in federal prison left the hurricane-prone district with no “rainy day” fund. The Texas Education Agency promptly stripped power from the district’s elected trustees and appointed a new school board.

To stave off financial ruin, the replacement board cut the district’s campus-level staff by 15 percent, eliminating about 200 teaching positions headed into 2014-15. In turn, Beaumont’s suspension rate jumped from 29 to 43 suspensions issued per 100 students that school year.

“When something like that happened, you lost the morale,” said Helen Sutton-Tegbe, a former assistant principal at Beaumont’s Ozen High School. “That was very devastating.”

Five years later, Beaumont’s school board and top administrators have returned the district to solid financial footing, stashing away $53.6 million in its “rainy day” fund as of June 2019. Rebuilding the district’s reserves, however, left little money for bolstering a demoralized teaching force, which remains at 2014-15 levels.

In the half-decade since the cuts, Beaumont’s annual teacher turnover rate has more than doubled. About 23 percent of teachers did not return to the district following the summer of 2018, higher than the state average of 17 percent.

In addition, Beaumont’s percentage of first-year teachers nearly has tripled during that time, reaching 13.4 percent in 2018-19. The state average was 7 percent.

Educators working in the district also face class sizes larger than the state average, despite serving one of Texas’ neediest student populations.

During that five-year stretch, Beaumont’s suspension rate remained among the state’s highest, never dipping below 36 issued per 100 students.

“We have a high number of teachers with very little experience dealing with some of the behaviors coming into our classrooms,” Allen said. “That’s just the reality of where we are.”

Neglect of discipline

Following the staffing cuts, local and state leadership also did not successfully address the district’s festering behavioral issues.

Under former superintendent John Frossard, who led the district from 2015 through the summer of 2019, the district implemented multiple initiatives to reduce behavioral issues, including restorative justice training for seven campuses and expansion of social-emotional curriculum. However, none of the efforts resulted in staff issuing significantly fewer suspensions, which some educators attributed to poor implementation.

“Some of the administration would talk a good game, but when a teacher had a problem with one kid and 20 others in the classroom were feeding off that one, sometimes they didn’t know what to do,” said Michael Renfro, who taught in Beaumont middle and high schools for 22 years before retiring in 2018. “It really wasn’t a priority.”

Frossard, who amicably left the district, said he was “encouraged by the progress made” during his tenure.

“We are not denying that this data could be startling for some, but it is realistic for the challenges that our district faces,” Frossard said.

A.B. Bernard, who served on Beaumont’s appointed board from 2014 through mid-2019, blamed the district’s high suspension rates on poor parenting and overburdened administrators.

“I really believe they’re doing the best they can do under the circumstances,” Bernard said. “If it’s out of whack with what’s going on in other districts, then so be it.”

Texas Education Agency leaders did not respond to multiple questions about their role in Beaumont’s discipline practices or any interventions in the district. In a statement, the agency only noted its employees are providing training to Beaumont for a restorative discipline pilot program launching in three schools this spring.

Sigee, the district’s current board president, applauded Frossard’s administration and the state-appointed board members for restoring the district’s financial stability. Still, he said the district’s attention to student discipline has been “unacceptable,” adding that “no superintendent is here only for finances.”

‘It can be fixed’

Allen’s administration took an initial step toward engaging the Beaumont community about discipline in mid-November, holding a public forum attended by roughly 200 people.

The district’s message left Karen Young, a district parent liaison for about 15 years who counts about 20 relatives as Beaumont students, hopeful about the district’s direction. Young said the district needs several changes to improve student behavior: stronger parenting, a larger teaching staff, more consistent leadership on discipline and better support from the state.

“I do feel like (Allen) is in control and she’s taking it seriously,” Young said. “However, I do feel like the system itself is set up or designed so that children who are misbehaving are going to continue to do so. It’s going to be a problem as long as we have a shortage of teachers.”

District data shows Beaumont’s suspension rate is on track to fall by 27 percent this school year, partially attributable to thousands of students missing multiple days of school due to flooding from Imelda. Beaumont United High School, which had the district’s second-highest suspension rate last year, was closed for three weeks.

Traylor, the mother of Jamerson, said parents and school leaders both bear responsibility for raising better-behaving children — and argued repeated suspensions are not the solution.

“I think if someone really cares enough,” Traylor said, “it can be fixed.”

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Jacob Carpenter joined the Houston Chronicle in June 2017 to cover K-12 education. Prior to arriving in Texas, he spent a year as an investigative reporting fellow for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He reported for the Naples (Fla.) Daily News from 2011 to 2016, covering criminal courts and long-term investigative projects. A native of suburban Detroit, he graduated from Michigan State University in 2010. Follow him on Twitter @ChronJacob. Contact him by email at jacob.carpenter@chron.com.

Isaac Windes is the education reporter for the Beaumont Enterprise. Follow him on Twitter @isaacdwindes. Contact him by email at isaac.windes@hearstnp.com.

Designed by Stephanie Lamm and Jasmine Goldband.

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