FORUM
The shameful legacy of the
special legislative session
Chris
Fltzsimon
Guest
Columnist
The defining moment
of the absurd special leg
islative session held this
week in Raleigh had noth
ing to do with the common
sense decision by the
Charlotte City Council to
allow transgender people
to use the public restroom
that corresponds to their
sexual identity - the way
many other local govern
ments and private compa
nies do.
And it had nothing to
do with the anti-worker
provisions of the secretly
crafted legislation that for
bids cities from requiring
companies that contract
with local governments to
pay decent wages - as dam
aging as those provisions
are to workers and the
economy.
And it wasn't even
about a provision debated
on the House floor that
takes away the right of
workers who are fired sim
ply because they are
African-American or
Jewish or female to sue
under state law - as shock
ing as that provision is,
joining North Carolina
with Mississippi as the
only places where workers
cannot sue in state court for
being fired for their race,
religion, color, national ori
gin, age, sex or disability.
No, the defining
moment in what has to be
one of the most offensive
special legislative sessions
in North Carolina history
came in the House on
amendment proposed by
Rep. Grier Martin that
would have broadened the
state's nondiscrimination
law to include military sta
tus, sexual orientation and
gender identity.
Martin's proposal came
after bill sponsor Rep. Dan
Bishop boasted that the
legislation, unveiled min
utes before it was debated
in a House committee,
would establish a statewide
nondiscrimination law that
protects people in employ
ment and public accommo
dations based on their race,
religion, color, national ori
gin, age, biological sex or
disability.
Biological sex was
added to make sure trans
gender people were not
protected.
The ordinance passed
by the Charlotte City
Council also included pro
tections based on sexual
orientation and gender
identity, in addition to the
bathroom provision that
was the subject of some of
the worst demagoguery
and fear-mongering to ever
come out of the Legislative
Building-and that's quite a
high bar to clear.
Bishop's bill voids
Charlotte's protection of
LGBT people from dis
crimination and prohibits
any other local govern
ments from protecting
them either. That didn't
deter Bishop from repeat
edly bellowing about what
he called the historic
statewide nondiscrimina
tion standard the legisla
tion established.
Martin's amendment,
the defining moment of the
day, simply tried to broad
en the basic protections to
LGBT people across the
state.
It is easy to describe the
debate that followed. There
wasn't any. Rep. Paul Stam
moved to table the propos
al and the House voted 72
35 to kill the amendment.
That's what the legisla
tive record shows.
But what the vote
means is that the majority
of the state House affirma
tively decided that is okay
for companies to fire peo
pie who are gay simply
because they are gay - in
Charlotte and everywhere
else in North Carolina.
They voted to allow
hotels to refuse rooms to
same-sex couples and let
taxis refuse rides to trans
gender men and women.
The majority of the House
voted to give restaurants
permission to refuse to
serve a gay man and allow
theaters to refuse to seat
him based on his sexual
orientation.
The legislation adopted
by the General Assembly
this week included this
clause about public accom
modations.
"It is the public policy
of this State to protect and
safeguard the right and
opportunity of all individu
als within die State to enjoy
fully and equally the
goods, services, facilities,
privileges, advantages, and
accommodations of places
of public accommodation
free of discrimination ..
There is a similarly
flowery paragraph about
employment protections.
But it is not true. Not
for all individuals, not for
members of the LGBT
community. They can still
be openly discriminated
against. The state House
had a chance to change that
Wednesday in a simple up
or down vote.
mora uy wum.
They had a clear
choice, equal rights or dis
crimination. And they
chose discrimination.
That is the undeniable
legacy of the 2016 special
session of the General
Assembly.
Chris Fitzsimon,
founder and executive
director of N.C. Policy
Watch, writes the daily
Fitzsimon File, delivers a
radio commentary broad
cast on WRAL-FM and
hosts "News and Views," a
weekly radio news maga
zine that airs on multiple
stations across North
Carolina. Contact him at
chris@ncpolicywatch .com.
Black students significantly more likely to
face suspension in North Carolina
Billy
Ball
Guest
| Columnist
N.C. Rep. Garland
Pierce, a Democrat from
Scotland County and the
chairman of the state's
Legislative Black Caucus,
insists he's not overstating
the crisis for black students
in North Carolina today.
Not after a recent report
from the N.C. Department
of Public Instruction (DPI),
that showed?once
again?staggeringly high
suspension rates for North
Carolina's black students.
The report showed that
black students in North
Carolina continued to be
significantly more likely to
receive short-term and
long-term suspensions than
their white peers in 2014
2015.
State policies allow tor
administrators to employ
in-school or short-term sus
pensions, which allow for
out-of-school suspension
of one to 10 days. More
serious offenses could be
punished with long-term,
out-of-school suspension
from 11 days to the remain
der of the school year.
The rate of short-term
suspensions, about three
for every 10 black students
in North Carolina, more
than tripled that for white
students. And for long-term ,
suspensions, the rate?
about 153 per every
lOOjOOO black students
more than quadrupled the
rate for white students,
according to DPI data.
State data does not
break down suspension fig
ures to show whether stu
dents are being treated
equally across race lines
for the same offenses, but
some school critics have
suggested black students
are sometimes suspended
for offenses that would
prompt reprimands for
their peers.
Indeed, last week, N.C.
Superintendent of Public
Instruction June Atkinson
told state board members
that she believed cultural
differences sometimes can
play a key role in school
suspensions.
"What may be disre
spectful in one culture may
not be disrespectful in
another," said Atkinson,
adding that increased pro
fessional development for
school staff could assuage
the problem.
According to Atkinson,
the problem requires a
range of reforms, as well as
community buy-in.
Atkinson pointed out con
trolled substances and
weapons were the top two
reasons for suspensions last
year.
"So suspensions are not
only challenges for our
schools, but they are chal
lenges for our communi
ties," she said.
While the state chapter
of the NAACP did not
respond to interview
requests for this story, Rep.
Pierce said the Legislative
Black Caucus, a network of
state lawmakers of African
American and Native
American descent, is plan
ning a tour of counties with
the best and worst numbers
in the suspension data fol
lowing the primaries.
Pierce said the goal is
to learn what some coun
ties are doing right and,
more importantly, what
they're doing wrong.
While Pierce wasn't
willing to blame racism for
the disparity?arguing, like
Atkinson, that cultural dif
ferences could be a large
factor?other leaders were
not so optimistic. ,
Rep. Ed Hanes Jr., a
Democrat from Forsyth
County who serves as vice
chairman of the House
Education Committee,
lashed out at state educa
tion leaders in ah email to
Policy Watch, arguing that
the suspension gap is push
ing black students out of
public schools and into
charter schools and private
schools.
"I mean, for the life of
me, I can't fathom why
more and more black par
ents are looking for an exit
from public schools that
both Democrat and
Republican mostly white
legislators have allowed to
chew up black kids,"
Hanes wrote.
Hanes' district includes
the Winston-Salem/Forsyth
County Schools district,
the fourth-largest in the
state. According to DPI
data, suspensions among
black students nearly
quadrupled the number
among white students in
2014-2015, despite the fact
that black students make up
less than 30 percent of total
enrollment.
Hanes was among a
handful of Democrats who
rankled some liberals in
2013 when they backed the
GOP-launched
Opportunity Scholarship
Program, a controversial
program of public vouch
ers that helps pay for low
income children to attend
private schools, most of
them with religious back
grounds.
And with research indi
cating a correlation
between suspensions and
drop-outs, Hanes went on
to argue that the state's dis
ciplinary practices may be
dealing long-term damage
to North Carolina's black
residents.
State education offi
cials may soon have an
?answer for that complaint.
Ken Gattis, a DPI
researcher, tells Policy
Watch that a committee at
the department has been
brainstorming possible
solutions for the issue for
more than a year.
By next month, Gattis
said he hopes to have a pro
gram online that will allow
system superintendents and
school principals to access
disaggregated figures
before making disciplinary
decisions. It's unclear,
according to Gattis,
whether that information
would be deemed public
record.
Atkinson said it's a ?
multi-pronged system of
reforms, as well as data
analysis, that will pay divi
dends, adding that she will
advocate for greater lever
age for administrators to
make judgment calls on
suspensions, rather than
imposing certain "zero-tol
erance" rules.
Billy Ball, Education
Reporter, joined N.C.
Policy Watch in January
2016. He covers public
education at the N.C.
General Assembly and the
State Board of Education.
Before joining the project,
Billy was a staff writer and
investigative reporter
for the Independent
Weekly for more than three
years, covering education,
the environment, politics
and the criminal justice
system. Before that, Billy
served as a general assign
ment reporter for the
Sanford Herald and the
Monroe Enquirer
Journal. Contact him at
billy? ncpolicywatch .com
or 919-861-1460
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