Attorney General to investigate discipline at Gallup McKinley Schools
New Mexico Attorney General Ra煤l Torrez is opening an investigation into disproportionately harsh punishment of Native American children by Gallup McKinley County Schools.
New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica reported in December that Native students are expelled from New Mexico public schools at a much higher rate than other children, and that Gallup McKinley, with the largest Native student population of any public school district in the U.S., is largely responsible.
The district, which includes large swaths of the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico, enrolls a quarter of the state鈥檚 Native students but was responsible for three-quarters of Native expulsions, according to student discipline data. The district鈥檚 annual expulsion rate was 4.6 per 1,000 students, at least 10 times as high as the rest of the state during the four school years ending in 2020.
Superintendent Mike Hyatt disputed those findings, claiming his district misreported long-term suspensions to the state Public Education Department as expulsions. But Gallup McKinley鈥檚 rate of student removals from school for 90 days or longer, regardless of what those removals were called, remained far higher than the rest of the state, an analysis by the news outlets confirmed.
Gallup McKinley officials did not respond last week to questions about Torrez鈥檚 intention to investigate the district鈥檚 discipline disparities.
The Attorney General鈥檚 office has traditionally defended public bodies accused of wrongdoing, rather than investigate them. Torrez, who took office in January, expressed dismay that it鈥檚 taken this long for the Attorney General鈥檚 office to investigate agencies and school districts suspected of violating New Mexicans鈥� civil rights.
鈥淚t鈥檚 embarrassing, frankly, when I speak with colleagues from other states who have been doing this work since the 1970s,鈥� Torrez said during an interview on Friday.
In March, state lawmakers passed a bill that would have enshrined a new Civil Rights Division in the Attorney General鈥檚 office. But Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham didn鈥檛 sign the bill into law, noting that the agency already had the authority to pursue civil rights cases and that cabinet-level agencies can police themselves.
However, the legislation would have granted the attorney general authority to demand records from public bodies suspected of civil rights violations, which the agency does not have now. Without that authority, his investigators must get public bodies to cooperate and if they refuse, sue them in court and use the discovery process to obtain records 鈥� a much longer process. It鈥檚 unclear how long the Civil Rights Division鈥檚 investigation will take.
The governor鈥檚 office did not respond to questions for this story by the time of publication.
State public education officials in the past have emphasized that school districts, not the state, oversee student discipline policies.
In the case of school discipline at Gallup McKinley, the investigation will not be limited to expulsion and suspension rates, Torrez said. It will also look at how often the district refers students to law enforcement, for example. His office is seeking updated student discipline data from the state Public Education Department but for now is examining a PED dataset the news organizations obtained and published online, along with a detailed description of their data analysis. PED Acting Communications director Martha Pincoffs said Tuesday the department plans to share updated data with the AG鈥檚 office.
Torrez did not say when his office would notify Gallup McKinley of its investigation.
鈥淥ur hope is that they will voluntarily change these practices,鈥� he said.
The new division currently has only two attorneys, though Torrez ultimately wants a staff of eight to 10 full-time employees working on civil rights, with a focus on children鈥檚 rights. He is currently looking for a division director.
鈥淚t鈥檚 probably going to take a year, at least鈥� to staff up the Civil Rights Division, Torrez said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to build this the right way and find the right people.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 early days,鈥� he said.
One of the two new division attorneys, Eli Fresquez III, will investigate the district鈥檚 discipline practices. (The other attorney, Katharine 鈥淜atie鈥� Downey, will look into the rights of children in state custody who need specialized care for emotional, behavioral, or medical problems, called treatment foster care.) Fresquez was previously director of the Office of Children鈥檚 Rights at the state鈥檚 troubled Children, Youth & Families Department (CYFD), where he helped negotiate the 鈥淜evin S.鈥� settlement agreement for overhauling the state鈥檚 child welfare system.
The grandmother of one Navajo Gallup McKinley middle-school student whose suspensions and expulsion were described in New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica鈥檚 reporting said Monday afternoon that the division鈥檚 investigation was welcome news.
鈥淚鈥檓 happy the attorney general is going to investigate what鈥檚 going on,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 not too sure Gallup McKinley will be honest with them, though.鈥� (New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica agreed to not name her or her grandson, for fear he would face retribution in school).
She also said she thinks Gallup McKinley should adopt talking circles used in other districts to keep students in classrooms when they misbehave, instead of kicking so many kids out of school.
鈥淭hey need to get students together and get a counselor who can talk to the kids to find out what鈥檚 bothering them and why they were written up or suspended,鈥� she said.
