Sheila Garcia-Wilder, the former chief of schools for the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System, has filed a civil lawsuit against the district that claims she was terminated in retaliation for raising concerns that Black male students and special needs students were disproportionately disciplined with suspension and expulsion.
In her first month as chief of schools in July 2019, Garcia-Wilder said she started receiving “expulsion packets” from SCCPSS principals. Inside the expulsion packets were discipline recommendations, including short- and long-term suspensions, for students who had gotten in trouble for a wide array of infractions. In her position, Garcia-Wilder was responsible for approving or disapproving these discipline recommendations.
Garcia-Wilder discovered after reviewing the expulsion packets that more than 50% had not been processed according to SCCPSS policies and procedures. In many cases, parents had not been made aware within the required 10-day timeframe that their child was scheduled for a discipline hearing. Some parents were not made aware that a disciplinary hearing was even available. Some students who were expelled or suspended were falsely marked as present in the classroom. A high number of suspensions and expulsions were not being recorded and reported — and, even if they were, the district wasn’t sending the report to the Georgia Department of Education (GDOE).
“It started becoming a pattern,” Garcia-Wilder told the Savannah Morning...
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