![]() ![]() “In accordance with Michigan law and school policy as it relates to school suspensions, students were offered the opportunity to participate in a restorative discipline process in order to reduce their suspension," the statement reads. She has asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation from the district. “This week, three 18-year-old students and two other students within six months of their 18th birthday were issued a disciplinary consequence for what was determined to be a serious code-of-conduct violation," the statement said in part.Ī mother of one of those students reached out to News Channel 3 and said the violation involved the students playing with a sex toy inside of the high school, and their consequence was suspension. Paw Paw Public School District issued apologies to a group of students and their parents Friday, after a disciplinary consequence went too far. And one thing I'm committed to doing is making sure we involve students in these discussions.PAW PAW, Mich. And I think it's going to be a really positive thing in the long run. “I think what was shared tonight is going to inform our discussions going forward in my work with the school board. ![]() They talked to us about wanting to work with us to do what's right for kids.” “We had a huge piece of our community show up. Reo called the outpouring of support for both the TRAILS program, and rainbow flags, “incredible.” “SEL needs to be something that we can all rally around and be positive about and we didn’t have that.” “The reason we shut down TRAILS, or at least put a pause on it was it was creating division,” said Reo. Rick Reo is the district’s superintendent of schools. The Paw Paw School District adopted the program last year for its Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum. The K-12 program is used in about 700 school districts and emphasizes inclusion for historically marginalized students. The mental-health curriculum known as TRAILS was developed at the University of Michigan in 2013. “Let them be as innocent and carefree as possible as long as possible - and parents get that choice.” ![]() “They really truly don't until we start bringing it to their attention and we start making an issue out of it,” Schmidt said. Schmidt said young children don’t see differences until others point them out. “We need to remind all our students we’re here for them no matter how bad the storms may be.”Īngela Schmidt said she wrote the letter to the board objecting to the rainbow flags based on her experiences as an early education teacher and as a Paw Paw parent. ![]() A little reminder that it’s going to be okay in the end,” Perkins told the board. Kris Perkins runs the school district’s Performing Arts Center. These two policy decisions prompted droves of parents, teachers, students, community members and LGBTQ activists from Kalamazoo and Benton Harbor to come to Monday night’s school board meeting and address the board. 5 letter to parents, that it would “discontinue using the TRAILS Curriculum” for social and emotional learning. About the same time, the district announced in an Oct. Earlier this month Paw Paw school teachers and administrators were told to take down rainbow flags, a symbol of LGBTQ pride and equality, from classrooms and other safe spaces after the school board received a complaint from a parent who suggested rainbow flags were inappropriate for elementary-aged children. ![]()
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