Parents and students press Merced school board to expand restorative practices after discipline complaints

Raquel Babs, identifying herself as a Black education activist and a member of the Black Parallel School Board, used the public-comment period to urge the Merced City School District board to confront what she described as systemic discipline disparities that are harming Black and disabled students.

"Our children are not bad. They are underserved by the very system that is supposed to provide an inclusive education," Babs told trustees, describing incidents she said involved shortened school days, repeated suspensions and placement in restrictive nonpublic schools. She cited similar claims recently resolved in Sacramento and said she brought documentation to the board.

Babs asked the board to increase supports such as social workers — noting the district has about three social workers for 18 schools and roughly 11,500 students — and to reconsider exclusionary discipline practices she said push students out of classrooms.

The public comment period also included a lengthy presentation from the Restorative Justice League (RJL). Program lead Andre Griggs described RJL’s work in four middle schools, reporting hundreds of restorative "circles" including mediation, harm and re-entry circles across sites; he said the program seeks to replace punitive responses with dialogue-based interventions.

Multiple RJL students gave first-person accounts of how their participation in circles helped their emotional health and school relationships. "RJL has helped me with my issues — my family issues, my friend issues — and just being a better person," a student said.

Princess Johnson, the RJL specialist at Hoover Middle School, told the board the program builds trusting relationships between students and adults and that RJL wants to expand its middle-school work to elementary sites.

Trustees acknowledged the public comments and said they were listening. Several trustees invited continued dialogue and pledged to consider next steps. The board did not take formal action on discipline policy at the meeting; discussion was held during public comment and in later instructional and policy agenda items.

The meeting record shows the board also handled multiple agenda items that same evening — including a district update on instructional goals and presentations on pandemic-relief spending — and that trustees extended public-comment time by consensus to accommodate additional speakers.