A few weeks ago I spent some time driving around the Washington/ Chocowinity, NC area working on a story about how “zero tolerance” school discipline policies are being called into question as a case makes its way to the NC Supreme Court this week. These policies are intended to restore order to schools experiencing discipline problems but they have also been blamed for high rates of minority suspensions that can not be explained fully by behavioral differences.
Edward, NC. The town where one of the girls who was suspended was from (she would not be photographed)
I was supposed to photograph 3 students, and their families, who had been suspended for fighting a couple of years ago, as well as some school officials involved in the case and events that led to the suspensions. As it turned out, several of the folks would not be photographed at the last minute, even after a few attempts to convince, so I was left to try and make the photos of the available subjects and the areas where they were from. The weather did not help much, but the 2 portraits of the students ran large in the paper and the story is well worth the read. So it goes sometimes.
Vernon Mason is one of the students who received a long term suspension. He is now looking for a job and trying to take GED courses.
Southside High School, where the fight in question took place.
Viktoria King was also suspended, but has returned to school and will graduate this year.
Read the story, by Erik Eckholm, here
Buy images here