Rally to end non-violent suspensions in all Minneapolis grades

Faith and community leaders rallied on Tuesday in support of Minneapolis Public School's decision to end all non-violent school suspensions. The measure affects students from pre-k through fifth grade.

Supporters of the new policy argue that non-violent suspensions are wrong and that these punishments adversely impact students of color. In fact, this diverse group wants to see Minneapolis do-away with non-violent suspensions through all grades.

Minneapolis schools just this month expanded its non-violent suspension rules all the way through elementary school. The district had trotted out a policy last year to do away with suspensions for such things as disruptive behavior and classroom disobedience for kindergarten and first grade.

Administrators were thrilled with the results and thus applied the new rules to all elementary students. The acting superintendent told Fox 9 that he wants to study how the new disciplinary system works before potentially implementing it at the middle and high schools.

The Minneapolis School Board will meet Tuesday night. Clearly this is a policy change that has generated a ton of reaction and is a discussion likely to continue for some time.