OKC Superintendent Promises Change After Audit Finds Flaws With Suspensions

OKCPS Superintendent Rob Neu says district schools are suspending students for infractions they shouldn't be suspended for. He's basing that on the results of an audit he requested earlier this year.

The audit looked at the suspensions at every middle and high school, and now the superintendent says changes are coming district wide.

“When I see the number of students being suspended and the lengths of time being suspended I have glaring concerns,” said Neu.

Neu says the audit show kids being suspended at an even higher rate than he suspected when he asked for the review.

“If they don't threaten the safety or civility of the schools, we need to keep those kids in school. We've got to keep them engaged in learning.”

Neu says he has already spoken to all secondary school principals about changing the way they do things.

“When students are misbehaving or perceived to be misbehaving then that's a signal to us that we as educators have got to do our work and find out what's troubling the student.”

The audit also revealed wide discrepancies in suspensions between schools and even within individual cases at the same school. In addition, there were discipline discrepancies within ethnicity. The district is rewriting their code of conduct to become more consistent.

“If we err in student discipline I would rather err on behalf of the student keeping them in school,” said Neu.

The audit also revealed a lack of a papertrail at several schools in regards to who was suspended and why. No disciplinary actions have been taken against any administrators due to the results of this study.