A South Jersey mother began trying in 2023 to lift her daughter’s suspension for fighting, but she has yet to return to school

After nearly a year on indefinite suspension, Sania Anderson thought she might actually be readmitted for the final weeks of her junior year at Kingsway Regional High School in Woolwich Township.

After an entire 2023-24 academic calendar spent receiving virtual instruction at home, with a twice-a-week, in-person meeting with her algebra teacher, the rising senior had missed out on extracurricular activities and dances over the year, and now, it seemed, senior portraits, too.

Would a finding in May that Kingsway Regional School District hadn’t properly reviewed the suspension get her back in the building for good? Not yet.

“I want my daughter back in school,” said her mother, Naimah Howard. “She has a right to this education.”

Anderson was suspended for eight days in March 2023 after getting involved, as four other students had, in a cafeteria fight. A legal battle ensued after the district put Anderson on long-term suspension and demanded that she undergo a risk assessment and a psychological evaluation. Howard refused, arguing that such tests are both unnecessary and unfair, and could result in unfairly classifying her daughter as having special needs.

Howard also has contended that the severity of her daughter’s punishment is because she and the other four students who were involved in the fight are Black. Those four were also suspended and later left the Gloucester County school where about 11.2% of its 2,765 students are Black.

As the matter has dragged on through the courts, the case has raised questions about disparities in treatment of Black and brown students. A civil-rights complaint filed by Howard against the Kingsway Regional School District is one of nearly a dozen pending N.J. cases alleging discriminatory discipline.

Black students constitute only 15.5% of the state’s student population, but account for 29.8% of referrals from schools to law enforcement, and 28.9% of arrests in schools, according to the New Jersey Department of Education. For the first time, public schools are expected to release demographic statistics this year on disciplinary action.

“The fact this is still unresolved really points to a flaw in the system,” said Joe Johnson, policy counsel for ACLU-NJ. “There should never be a scenario where a student should be out of school for over a year.”

A key sticking point in Anderson’s case has been a demand from the district that Howard withdraw her complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, according to documents provided by Howard’s lawyer Sarah Zuba to Howard, who gave them to the Inquirer. Anderson would then be allowed back in school, Howard said.

Howard’s attorney, Sarah Zuba, declined to comment.

Howard declined to withdraw the complaint and says she plans to pursue a federal discrimination lawsuit. The district later withdrew the request and the case remained unresolved.

Then in early May, Howard, a teacher in Philadelphia, believed a resolution was close when acting state Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer found that the Kingsway school board had failed to review the long-term suspension, as required by law.

After the board approved the suspension last July and passed a resolution that it would remain in effect “subject to the conditions recommended by the superintendent,” Dehmer noted, the board should have reviewed the matter monthly to determine whether the student should be allowed to return and whether the education provided outside of school was appropriate, he said.

“It is unclear how the Board can make that determination when it has failed to review the case since July 2023,” the commissioner wrote. He also added it was unclear that the conditions recommended by the superintendent cited by the board were consistent with the criteria that should be used to determine whether a student should remain on long-term suspension.

Margaret A. Miller, a labor and education lawyer representing the district, has said the district was prohibited from commenting because the matter involves a student.

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Dehmer ordered the Kingsway board at its next meeting to consider whether Anderson should be allowed to return to the general education program. Her case must be reviewed monthly until she is back in school, he said.

Meanwhile, Superior Court Judge Robert Herman denied Howard’s request for an emergent ruling to order Anderson readmitted to school this academic year. Herman said Anderson would not benefit much by returning, with school ending June 14. Herman did order the district to allow Anderson to report to school for her senior portraits, calling the district’s refusal to let her sit for the portrait “punitive.” Howard thinks she’ll pass on that offer, wanting a full reinstatement.

A hearing on Howard’s motion to lift the suspension is expected later this month.

“My heart goes out to the student,” said Johnson. “You can’t erase this experience from this young woman’s life.”