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Michael Clara talks with judge Andrew Valdez before being sworn in as a new member of the Salt Lake City School Board at their offices in Salt Lake City Tuesday, January 8, 2013. Clara, who is also a member of the Racially Just Utah coalition, filed a complaint against the Salt Lake School District to federal education managers in June. Brian Nicholson, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Federal education authorities are looking into allegations of racial discrimination and unfair treatment against minority students in the Salt Lake School District.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights will investigate the district in response to a complaint of disproportionate discipline for black, Latino, Polynesian and Native American students in the district, among other issues, according to a Wednesday announcement by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Many of the issues in the complaint are based onresearch by the University of Utah, which reveals a similar problem statewide of a “school-to-prison pipeline” for minority students.

American Indian students, for example, are disciplined six times more than expected based on their proportion of Utah’s student body, according to the university report published last year. Black students are disciplined more than three times as often than expected, and Hispanic students are disciplined 1 ½ times more than expected, the report states.

Students with disabilities are twice as likely to be suspended multiple times as students without disabilities, according to the report.

Civil liberties advocates say this plays out in academic performance. In 2013, 86 percent of white students in Utah graduated from high school, compared to 70 percent of Latino and black students, and 80 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander students, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

“The numbers don’t lie,” said Leah Farrell, a staff attorney with ACLU. “We do discipline kids of color at a higher rate in Utah. Looking at some of the causes of that, looking at ways that can be addressed where that shouldn’t be happening, I think, is really important.”

The complaint also claims that having student resource police officers at Northwest and Glendale middle schools are the result of the racial composition of the student body, leading to disproportionate contact with law enforcement for minorities.

Salt Lake City School Board member Michael Clara, who is also a member of the Racially Just Utah coalition, filed the complaint to federal education managers in June.

It’s unclear when the investigation will happen or how long it will take, but Office of Civil Rights officials say the investigation will be “prompt.”

District leaders say they “invite any technical help” in providing a quality education for students, and that they are studying discipline data from the district and the state, as well as meeting with community organizations.

“The Salt Lake City School District welcomes any objective review of our programs and practices,” district spokesman Jason Olsen said in a prepared statement. “Appropriate student discipline is a national issue, which is being reviewed and approached on several fronts.

“We look forward to the Office of Civil Rights review and hopefully learning additional ways to help address any possible inequities for the young people we serve,” he said.

While the investigation is limited solely to the district, Farrell said she hopes it will shed light on similar problems elsewhere, including Utah’s rural districts.

“It’s not uniquely a Salt Lake City problem,” she said. “I think this is a great place to start looking into Salt Lake’s practices, but absolutely the conversation and the lens needs to be focused on many places throughout Utah.”

Contributing: Mary Richards

Complaint » Allegations include unfair treatment of minority students.

Federal education managers are investigating Salt Lake City schools over allegations of discrimination, retaliation and unfair treatment of minority students.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah released a letter Wednesday from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, confirming the investigation into the Salt Lake City School District.

The probe comes at the request of school board member Michael Clara, who filed a complaint in June with the civil rights office.

Included in his complaint were allegations that students of color are targeted for disciplinary action and that school-based police officers are disproportionately assigned to areas with high racial diversity.

Clara said he became concerned when parents complained to him that full-time resource officers were stationed at Glendale and Northwest middle schools on the west side, but not at schools in the district’s more-affluent neighborhoods.

“Out of the five junior highs,” he said, “you just have them at two, and they happen to be the ones with 80 percent racial and ethnic minority [students].”

Salt Lake City School District spokesman Jason Olsen said district administrators are working to ensure equity and welcome federal investigators’ objective review of their programs.

“We are focused on providing the best education we can to the children of Salt Lake City,” he said, “and invite any technical help in moving us toward this goal.”

Clara, who represents Salt Lake City’s more diverse west-side neighborhoods, has filed complaints in the past, some of which were dismissed by the Office for Civil Rights while others resulted in investigations.

Last spring, he accused his school board colleagues of retaliating against him by assigning an officer to intimidate him at board meetings. He responded to the perceived intimidation by dressing in a “bandito” costume at board meetings until the officer was removed.

Clara said the board’s response was indicative of how students are treated in the school district, with officers called in to resolve issues only when a person of color is involved. The disparate treatment, he said, places students on a path of interaction with police that influences them into adulthood.

“In the kid’s case,” he said, “just regular teenage misbehavior has been criminalized by the fact that a police officer will respond to their breaking of school rules.”

Nubia Pena, coordinator of the advocacy coalition Racially Just Utah, praised Clara for prompting a examination of the district’s practices.

She said research, including recent reports from the University of Utah, point to a so-called “school-to-prison pipeline,” in which inconsistent disciplinary actions result in students of color being arrested, expelled or referred to alternative- education programs in greater numbers than their white peers.

“It’s an epidemic that is impacting our most vulnerable youth,” she said.

The federal investigation was an opportunity to build a partnership with the school district and improve efforts already underway to address inequities, Pena said. “We hope that people are eager to come to the table as much as we are.”

Olsen said district managers are reviewing student discipline data with community organizations.

In addition to the investigation by the Office for Civil Rights, Clara said, he intends to push for clearer policies regarding the assignment of school-based police officers and the role they play in enforcement.

“What I’d like to see is standards developed, either at the district or the state level,” he said, “and to give the officers training.”

Federal reviews that find evidence of discrimination in schools traditionally result in mandated negotiations.

If remedies cannot be reached, schools districts face the potential of having federal funding withheld.

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