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Hazelwood schools lift student suspensions after days of pressure

Hazelwood school officials lifted the suspensions of nearly 200 high school students Thursday after several days of pressure from fellow students, parents and civil rights groups.

The students had been given five-day suspensions and were banned from participating in the graduation ceremony at Hazelwood West High School after they walked out of classes Monday to protest on behalf of the teachers. The teachers had been hoping to negotiate raises with the district. 

Even though the district lifted the suspensions, it shifted some of the blame for Monday’s events to teachers. The district issued a statement claiming teachers “encouraged and may have manipulated students into the walkout, which resulted in disruption and created safety concerns.” 

“No teacher encouraged students to do this,” said Diane Livingston, president of the Hazelwood chapter of the National Education Association.

Livingston said she is relieved the “extreme” punishment on students has been rescinded.

About 200 students left class Monday afternoon and ventured outside in support of teachers, who were upset that a union contract under negotiation did not include a pay raise. Several students said later that despite warnings from the school district on Sunday, they thought worst punishment they would receive was detention.

Hazelwood West Senior Class President Kyra Pearson wears her honor cords as she protested her suspension Thursday.
Credit Camille Phillips | St. Louis Public Radio
Hazelwood West Senior Class President Kyra Pearson wears her honor cords as she protested her suspension Thursday.

The student code of conduct “said nothing about suspensions,” Senior Class President Kyra Pearson said. “We’ve done many walkouts in the past with no punishment.”

Instead, the students were suspended for five days and a dozen seniors were banned from walking in their graduation ceremony this Saturday. But according to the school district, the students' actions rose above a simple disruption and that the “students in the hallways and outside of the school walked, ran, and shouted chants using vulgarities and profanities.”

More than 2,200 students attend Hazelwood West High School. The district said the protest disrupted final exams for some students. 

The suspensions raised concerns among civil liberty and school discipline activists. Parents and students stood outside the school in the days following the initial protest and a group of students staged a sit-in at district headquarters Thursday morning in an effort to get a meeting with the superintendent, which the district said it granted.

The students will be allowed to return to school on Friday, the district's statement said and seniors have been invited back to graduation. Scholarships were never in jeopardy, the district added.

Dennis Newell, Hazelwood West High School principal,  lifted the punishments after learning of “new information” during meetings, a district representative said. Livingston said she’d been unable to talk to Newell or Superintendent Nettie Collins-Hart during the week.

Community relations in Hazelwood were already fraught. Parents in the district were angry about the demotion of a teacher this year and they petitioned the state auditor to review school finances.

View the Hazelwood School District's Student-Parent Handbook and Behavior Guide here: 

Follow Camille on Twitter: @cmpcamille; Ryan: @rpatrickdelaney

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Hazelwood West seniors Yonnas Wole, Richard Spivey and Mallory Bachheit talk while they wait for district administrators to respond to their call for a meeting.
Camille Phillips | St. Louis Public Radio /
Hazelwood West seniors Yonnas Wole, Richard Spivey and Mallory Bachheit talk while they wait for district administrators to respond to their call for a meeting.

Camille Phillips began working for St. Louis Public Radio in July 2013 as the online producer for the talk shows. She grew up in southwest Missouri and has a Master’s degree from the Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri-Columbia.
Ryan Delaney
Ryan is a reporter on the education desk at St. Louis Public Radio, covering both higher education and the many school districts in the St. Louis region. He has previously reported for public radio stations WFYI in Indianapolis and WRVO in upstate New York. He began his journalism career working part time for WAER while attending Syracuse University. He's won multiple reporting awards and his work, which has aired on NPR, The Takeaway and WGBH's Innovation Hub. Having grown up in Burlington, Vt., he often spends time being in the woods hiking, camping, and skiing.