{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://richmond.house.gov/press-release/richmond-applauds-obama-administration-action-school-discipline", "Richmond Applauds Obama Administration Action on School Discipline", "2014-01-08", "2014", "2014-01", "Democrat", "House", "LA", "Cedric Richmond", "R000588", "richmond.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Calls for Policy Changes to End the School to Prison Pipeline\n\t\u00a0Washington, D.C. - Congressman Cedric Richmond (LA-02), lauded today\u2019s announcement of new guidelines to help public elementary and secondary schools comply with Federal civil rights laws in their school discipline policies. The Department of Justice and the Department of Education released this joint guidance as a part of their Supportive School Discipline Initiative (SSDI), which was formed to address potentially unconstitutional school disciplinary policies across the country. The historic guidelines are consistent with the policies contained in H.R. 3153, the Student Disciplinary Fairness Act of 2013, a bill Rep. Richmond introduced to end the \u201cschool to prison pipeline\u201d.\n\t\u201cI applaud Attorney General Holder and Secretary Duncan for their leadership in releasing these comprehensive guidelines,\u201d Rep. Richmond said. \u201cIt is high time that our schools stop treating our students like criminals. We must end the school to prison pipeline and dramatically scale back zero-tolerance policies because research has shown that these practices disproportionately impact young black students and hurt their chances to get. Beyond that, the Department of Justice has found that many of these practices could be unconstitutional.\u201d\n\tThe guidelines address the phenomenon known as the \u201cschool to prison pipeline\u201d, which describes an overly aggressive approach to school discipline that often results in expulsions or incarceration for minor youthful offenses. The guidelines detail best practices and remedies for stakeholders to adopt so that issues with misbehaving students are treated constructively without having to resort to the criminal justice system.\n\t\u201cI introduced the Student Disciplinary Fairness Act of 2013 because I felt strongly that we can find a better way to deal with minor student misbehavior. Criminalizing our students only serves to introduce them to our justice system, an introduction which has been shown to be detrimental to their ability to keep a job and provide for their families in the long run. These zero tolerance policies that create the \u201cschool to prison pipeline\u201d are harming our kids and their families. We must stop this approach so that these kids can focus on learning in school, not on how to grow up with a criminal record.\u201d\n\t\u00a0\n\t###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://richmond.house.gov/press-release/richmond-applauds-obama-administration-action-school-discipline"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0520662181079388, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}