Take Part: “Dontadrian Bruce is the kind of kid the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice might have had in mind when they released the new school disciplinary guidelines in January. The new federal approach urges schools to move away from harsh policies that remove kids from the learning environment.
After 21 days of suspension, Bruce was recently allowed back to Olive Branch High School in Olive Branch, Miss. Bruce had been accused of using a gang sign in a picture taken by his biology teacher after the student had finished building a DNA model out of Legos. In the photo the African American boy holds up three fingers of one hand, which he says was meant to indicate the number on his football jersey.
It didn’t matter that Bruce earns As and Bs. Didn’t matter that he said he had no knowledge that the gesture he’d made was a sign used by a gang known as Vice Lords. Didn’t matter that he’d never been in trouble at school before. Or that his football coach could have testified that the boy spent too much time practicing to be involved in gang activity. The disciplinary hearing officer sentenced Bruce to “indefinite suspension with a recommendation of expulsion.”
Bruce’s readmittance to school came only after community outcry. Bruce’s parents involved the ACLU and the NAACP. The story was featured on local ABC news and went viral. And on a newly created Facebook page, people posed in photos with three fingers held up in solidarity. One such picture (below) taken at Olive Branch High School led to Bruce’s brother being suspended as well.”
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