Durham Public Schools taking closer look at code of conduct and school discipline policy

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Tammi Hayes has seen firsthand some of the emotions her students are dealing with on a day-to-day basis at Lakeview Secondary School.

"We have a lot of students with a lot of trauma, a lot of home life issues," Hayes said. "There's been a lot of deaths of youth in the community, and these are students, friends and family members. So, when they come into the building, they need to know that we care."

Some of the difficult emotions highlight what's changed in student behavior since the COVID-19 pandemic, including at Durham Public Schools where data shows there's been an increase of incidents of student misconduct.

Since 2018-2019, the number of secondary students who were given long-term suspensions has increased. In 2022-2023, 11% of students have faced short-term suspensions.

"When you have suspension, it is strictly about 'This is the rule,'" Dr. Laverne Mattocks-Perry said. "You have no voice in the rule and here is your consequence."

Mattocks-Perry, who is the senior executive director for student support services at DPS, said the school system implements restorative practices, which focuses on resolving conflict rather than strictly turning to suspension.

"Restorative practices allow for you to go through reflective processes while holding people accountable for those actions," Mattocks-Perry said. "So it would be something as simple as 'Tell me what happened.'"

She said when students begin to open up, it allows for reflection while still providing for accountability. But restorative practices take time and care to implement, according to Hayes.

"When they do make mistakes and their behavior is not appropriate ... you still must have in place consequences," Hayes said. "Part of that relationship with restorative practices is taking the time out to do some checking-in with students."

A school district presentation held Thursday was for information and discussion purposes. Some of the recommendations included trauma-informed training for staff and de-escalation professional learning for all schools, as DPS considers the next steps.

"Every student's voice is important," Mattocks-Perry said. "When anticipated conflict or violations of our code of conduct occur, we go about it in a loving, caring, restorative manner to allow the student to grow from the experience, but also to be very aware of how it impacts our entire community."