COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio lawmakers are close to passing a bill that would allow school districts to indefinitely expel a student for threatening or dangerous behavior, including bringing a gun to school, making a bomb threat or writing a hit list.
For 30 years, Sean Brennan taught students at Brecksville-Broadview Heights — where he had a plan in case there was an active shooter.
"We would barricade the door, I take the sledgehammer, I'd knock that window out," Brennan told me. "I told them you're just gonna run, run, run as fast as you can to get away from someone that might try to hurt you."
The aftermath of a shooting can be just as traumatic, he said.
"I don't know how teachers go on — that lose students after a school shooting or any type of traumatic incident like that," he said, tearing up.
Right now, public schools in Ohio can only expel students for up to 180 days, or an academic year.
Brennan, also a Democratic state representative from Parma, said allowing a violent student to return after that time raises fears for schools, parents and students.
"They can be not only a danger to themselves but to their fellow classmates and the adults in the building," he said.
State Reps. Monica Robb Blasdel (R-Columbiana) and Gary Click (R-Vickery) introduced House Bill 206, which would change that. It would allow schools to expel for longer based on “imminent and severe endangerment.”
This includes bringing a gun or knife to a school, committing a criminal offense that results in harm to another or property, making bomb threats — or any other written or verbal threat such as a hit list, manifesto or malicious social media post.
To be reinstated, the student must go through a psychological evaluation. Even after the evaluation, the school superintendent can deny the student if they don’t think they have been “rehabilitated" enough. From there, the superintendent can reevaluate the student after 90 days. If they fail, again, they can be prohibited from the school for another 90 — and that would continue on.
Collin Marozzi with the ACLU of Ohio said that this bill could allow for bias.
"It just affords the superintendent of school districts unilateral discretion to indefinitely suspend and even expel students," Marozzi said.
Black male students were more than four times more likely to be expelled than their white peers, the Children’s Defense Fund Ohio reported.
"That's why one of the main amendments that the ACLU of Ohio was driving for is data collection: making sure we have an understanding of where these schools and superintendents are utilizing or would utilize this indefinite suspension," the advocate said.
I asked Brennan about the racial inequity of expulsions and what happens if a possible prejudiced superintendent is in charge of punishments.
"I would hope that a school board, if they felt there was one iota of racism in the superintendent, that they would get rid of them, like, yesterday," Brennan said.
There are checks and balances, he said, sharing that the student still has due process to appeal, the school board could move to fire the superintendent, and the Department of Education and Workforce must report the expulsions.
"If you want to expel a student from the school district, they're pretty much out in the wild," Marozzi said. "There's a couple loose guardrails around making sure that they can attend a charter school or a virtual academy, drop out recovery school, things like that."
He explained that students in those schools, according to DEW data, perform "perform much worse than their traditional charter or public school system."
Indefinite expulsions could hurt students' chances at rehabilitation, Marozzi added.
"That's one of our biggest things — making sure that students that are at risk and have some of these challenging behaviors aren't further isolated and have those supports that a school system can offer them," he continued.
He "absolutely understands" why people are concerned about these students, but he wants there to be more oversight and more conversation about this topic.
"Kicking them out of school, taking them away from their friends — from a structured day — is the last thing that those students need," Marozzi said. "We think that there's a better middle ground available."
The bill does require schools to develop a list of alternative educational options for expelled students.
"Even though some would say it's heavy-handed, it's actually pretty empathetic," Brennan said. "We're providing educational services to these kids, which was not a thing before."
The bill will continue to be debated this week and will likely pass the Senate.
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