Black Pflugerville Students Draw Disproportionate Assault Charges

PFLUGERVILLE, TX — Black students in the Pflugerville school district are disproportionately charged with assault after scrapes with fellow students when compared to other racial/ethnic groups, according to a newly released study.

MEASURE, an Austin-based, not-for-profit research and public education organization that uses data to address complex social disparities, on Tuesday revealed the findings culled from Pflugerville ISD police data and enrollment demographic statistics from the Texas Education Agency. The upshot: Black students were three to five times more likely to be charged with assault when compared to other students, the study found.

The study focused on the 2016-17 academic year, during which more than half (54 percent) of assault charges occurred at Pflugerville ISD schools, researchers found — "A startling fact when you consider that black students only make up 16.8 percent of the district student body," researchers noted.

In the time period studied, here's the report's breakdown of the 37 assault charges filed against students per per race or ethnicity:

• 20 - Black
• 10 - Hispanic
• 6 - White
• 1 - Unspecified

Researchers noted students who were arrested for more than one offense or on more than one occasion were counted as one arrest in the reckoning. Based on these figures, black students were roughly 4.5 times more likely to receive an assault charge than white students, and six times more likely than Hispanic students, researchers found. Of the reported cases, 14 of these assault charges were filed by staff against students.

Researchers noted some of the highest incidents of assault charges against children for in-school incidents in Pflugerville ISD came from Connally High School, which charged 11 children with assault (and the majority of whom were enrolled in the Special Education program), Pflugerville Middle School, which charged 6 children with assault, and Kelly Lane Middle School which charged 5 children with assault.

“This is problematic,” Meme Styles president of MEASURE, said in a prepared statement. “The numbers indicate that charges appear to target children of color disproportionately, ultimately widening the achievement gap in Pflugerville. There are alternatives the school district could - and should - be using to drive these numbers down.”

In October, a Task Force with representatives from local nonprofits, the Black Pflugerville Organization, the Pflugerville ISD PACE program, and the Pflugerville ISD Police Department convened at the request of Pflugerville Police Chief Jessica Robledo to take a closer look at the disproportionately high incidents of assault charges for Black students, and provide meaningful solutions, Styles noted.

“This is a community issue that should be addressed with parents, policy makers, officers and most importantly the school district," said Dawn Burnside, president of Black Pflugerville. "There are ways to get in front of bias when we have the right tools."

In response to the data collected in the report, stakeholders plan to continue holding meetings, and have scheduled an upcoming press conference to discuss the matter in greater detail and search for solutions. Fore more news and upcoming events from the organization, visit measureaustin.org.

>>> Photo by William Stitt on Unsplash