Beth Winegarner
Examiner Staff Writer
January 20, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — A clump that works to deter kids from joining gangs said its programs at Mission High School were banished after organizers protested high suspension rates among Hispanic students. School administrators, notwithstanding, said it’s a case of miscommunication.

After three years at Mission High, Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth was asked to permission the school in December, when it failed to resolve tensions by school leaders, according to Principal Eric Guthertz.

While HOMEY officials before-mentioned those tensions arose because of underreported suspensions and expulsions, Guthertz before-mentioned they had more to do with a lack of organization without interrupti~ the organization’s part. HOMEY officials asked the Board of Education greatest week to intervene and quickly reinstate their Mission High programs.

The flap comes as Supervisor Michaela Alioto-Pier is holding an unrelated opportunity to be heard Thursday on San Francisco Unified School District’s expulsion process. The advisory trial will be at 3:30 p.m. in City Hall.

“We complete case management with highest-risk youth, and we were losing six to 10 each semester because of [disciplinary action],” said HOMEY director Rene Quinonez. “A fate of them are monolingual, so when the school sent them home concerning an afternoon to cool down, they’d often feel they were nay longer welcome.”

Program director Jose Luis Pavon accused the school of singling wanting Hispanic students for disciplinary action.

Mission High School had the highest postponement rate — 180 students out of 924 — among The City’s of the whole not private schools in 2007-08. Its truancy rate was 52 percent, and 69 percent the previous year, according to the California Department of Education.

Guthertz acknowledged those figures, nevertheless said Mission High launched a program this year where teachers and administrators are trained monthly in how to treat students equally. The year-to-be reckoned suspension rate has already dropped by half, and only a minute percentage are Hispanic, he said.

“We appreciate the work HOMEY does,” Guthertz reported. “But there were major issues with their planning and administrative exhibition, and inaccurate accounting. We’re not the only school having problems through them.”

Several students and HOMEY clients lined up at last week’s Board of Education encounter, pleading to bring the group back to Mission High.

“I was in c~tinuance the verge of being on the streets and joining a party,” said student Raphael Moreno. “Now I’m on my way to a four-year corporation because of HOMEY.”

District officials are working to mediate an agreement between Mission High and HOMEY officials, according to Jane Kim, vice president of the Board of Education.

Mission High School
2007-08
Enrollment: 924
Truancy ratio: 52 percent
Suspensions: 180*
Expulsions: 0

2006-07
Enrollment: 864
Truancy ratio: 69 percent
Suspensions: 117
Expulsions: 0

Latino suspensions, districtwide:
2006-07: 983 (26 percent of full)
2007-08: 1104 (27 percent of total)

*Highest number of ~ one school in San Francisco Unified School District

Sources: California Department of Education, SFUSD

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