Ann Arbor Times

The topic of how behavioral practices and improvement efforts hold up against legal requirements was a topic of discussion at a recent Saline Area School Board meeting.

Board members delved into an hour-long presentation concerning their restorative practices, discipline and Title IX updates. 

Assistant Principal Musetta Deneen they have been providing education to students on discipline and restorative practices, hate speech, academic integrity, substance abuse and bullying in school and online.

“When working with students regarding discipline and addition to education in restorative practices, we also provide behavior consequences,” said Deneen.  “When deciding on what consequences a student is given, we utilize our student handbooks as our foundation, and we also consider the following: the development of the student, both age and cognitive ability, prior discipline, the impact of their behavior, and access to their education.”

The presentation came after a public comment from a district student, a sophomore at Saline High School named Aliya Creo Taylor.

Taylor talked about an incident of racism towards her where she “was called a monkey, and instead of acting off of emotion like most people would, I went and told the school.”

The other student was given a day of ISS, but “the following two days I made a noise at her and I was given lunch detention,” Taylor admitted. She then went on to say that since then, she has been suspended twice for false accusations from this student trying to retaliate against her.

Taylor said it was after the second suspension that she talked to other students who felt they were all victims of similar incidents and didn’t feel that the school was paying enough attention.

“So, while all of this has been happening, I have gathered minorities at Saline and made a black student union,” she said. “And I plan on helping Saline grow with this and plan on growing as a community. But it all starts at home as well. This behavior, the racism starts at home, and it affects students so much more than it's talked about, the mental health fact of it and how hard it is to focus on your academics when you're looked at as a minority instead of a human.”

Saline was the subject of a national news story back in February of 2020 after a Snapchat group chat of high school students was released, showing several students using racial slurs, according to MLive.com.

The incident caused backlash from community members and parents, which erupted during a school board meeting that also made headlines for racial comments. The event also led to a lawsuit over the punishments to four of the students from the group chat, claiming the school exerted its authority over students’ freedom of speech done outside of school hours, school property and school affiliation.