The Noble Network of Charter Schools is responsible for educating the majority of Chicago’s high school children. With 18 campuses serving a whopping 12,000 kids, approximately 1 in every 10 Chicago kids is educated by this organization.
This past Spring, a scandal arose when former teachers went to the media outlet NPR, accusing the Noble Charter Schools of engaging in “dehumanizing” practices towards their thousands of students.
NPR reported that the school has an unusually high teacher turnover rate, mostly due to its “culture” of discipline. The Noble Charter Schools have a discipline system based on demerit points, and the consequences of acquiring these points can be rather extreme.
“Any four demerits (such as a failure to wear a black belt) within a two-week period triggers an automatic 2-3 hour detention.”
“Students who rack up 13 or more detentions during a school year have to attend ‘character development’ class at a cost, until this year, of $140.”
“Students who get 26 detentions have to attend two character development classes.”
“Students who receive more than 36 detentions in a year are automatically ineligible for promotion to the next grade”— regardless of their test scores.
What kind of actions earn students demerits you may ask? Well, according to the Noble Charter Schools Student Handbook, quite a darn few! Here are a few 4-demerit offenses:
- Chewing gum
- Being in possession of soda, energy drinks or chips not sold at the school (is this a money grab, perhaps?)
- Tardy to class by more than 3 minutes
- Being in the hallways without an escort
- Possession of a permanent marker
A former alum and teacher shared his experience as a Noble employee, being forced to kick a student out of class for not having a belt.
“This said student had not been at school for a few days so that was his first day back.”
“He told me, ‘You have no idea the type of night I had but here I am at school and I get kicked out of class because of a belt”.
“Those words broke me,” he explained.
I’m not going to lie; the school seems extremely strict. But as someone who attended a French Catholic school during my high school days, I didn’t see anything too dehumanizing about Noble’s practices— up until now, that is.
Now, in a follow-up story, NPR is reporting that Noble Charter Schools are denying their students access to the bathroom, to the point where menstruating students are bleeding through their pants.
“We have [bathroom] escorts, and they rarely come so we end up walking out [of class] and that gets us in trouble,” an anonymous student sent in a text to NPR.
“But who wants to walk around knowing there’s blood on them? … They need to be more understanding.”
As most of us are aware, feminine hygiene products can leak if they are not changed every few hours— and leaking isn’t just gross, it’s also super unhygienic. Tampons that aren’t changed regularly can be even more dangerous, leading to toxic shock syndrome, a bacterial infection which can be lethal.
But wait. As a Candian, I needed to know— is any of this legal?
According to lawyer Brian W. Freeman, who quotes the United States District Court for Western Wisconsin: “However primitive and ordinary, the right to defecate and urinate without awaiting the permission of government… are rights close to the core of the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The lawyer goes on to note that, in particular, “People who believe they have the authority to deny access to a bathroom, especially teachers and educators throughout the country, need to be aware that denial of pupil’s right to use the toilet could carry significant liabilities.”
In the case of Carroll vs Village of Homewood, a drunk man was refused the right to a washroom by police. When the defendants argued that refusing the man’s request was not a constitutional violation, the court seemed to disagree, stating clear precedents. In the end, defendants were found guilty of “intentional infliction of emotional distress”.
I realize laws differ from state to state, but I find it unlikely that any court would approve of this school’s actions.
In response to these bathroom accusations, Constance Jones Brewer, president of the Noble Network Charter Schools, released a statement which read, in part:
“Let me be clear— Noble absolutely accommodates our students during menstruation, including bathroom trips whenever the students need one… We also know that stains are not 100% preventable… but when they happen, our schools provide supportive solutions as quickly as possible.”
Mrs. Brewer’s definition of “supportive solutions”? Allowing a girl who has bled through her pants the permission to break dress code and wrap a sweater around her waist.
WOW. I honestly can’t even believe this is a thing, and some regulating body needs to take a good look at the network, as a whole. With 12,000 kids under their belt, The Noble Network should be doing much more than wrapping a sweater around menstruating girls.
Last I checked, using the washroom isn’t a privilege. It’s a goddamn right.
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