JAY — Spruce Mountain High School has recorded 19 suspensions and six civil rights violations during the first several weeks of the school year, prompting administrators to focus on student accountability, support and conversations about race, gender and respect.

Principal TJ Plourde told the Regional School Unit 73 board of directors Sept. 24 that the first several weeks of school had been among the toughest the high school has seen in years, with disciplinary cases involving student conflicts, inappropriate language toward staff, civil rights violations, threats and possession of drugs or vaping products.

The school has issued 45 detentions and three in-school suspensions in addition to the 19 suspensions during the first 4½ weeks of school.

Of the 19 suspensions, six involved conflicts between students, five involved inappropriate language directed at staff and six involved civil rights violations. One involved a threat and two involved possession of drugs or vaping products.

Plourde called the number of civil rights cases particularly concerning.

“We’ve had six of those this year,” he said. “We haven’t had those in multiple years.”

Director Tamara Hoke, of Jay, asked whether the civil rights concerns involved race, sexuality or other issues. “There’s a little bit of all that there,” Plourde said. “It’s just how do we recognize it, and our kids need to be held accountable to it.”

Plourde said the school plans to bring in a speaker from Choices Matter later this fall. He said the program is expected to include discussions about decision-making, race, gender and how students communicate with one another.

He declined to identify whether the disciplinary problems were concentrated among students from a particular grade or group, saying doing so could make students identifiable.

Plourde said the school is trying to hold students accountable without allowing disciplinary incidents to define them.

“These are kid mistakes, and we’re going to make sure that they understand how to move through it,” he said.

Students returning from suspension receive academic and other support, Plourde said. He said he remains in contact with parents and meets with students as they return to school. “It’s just something that we’re dealing with, and we’re going to work through it,” he said.

The high school has 419 students. Plourde also reported that 11% had reached the school’s attendance threshold, which counts a student absent when at least four classes are missed in a day.

Discipline figures at Spruce Mountain Middle School were closer to last year’s levels. Principal Kristofer Targett reported five out-of-school suspensions and one in-school suspension, which he said was equivalent to the number recorded at the same point last year.

The board also heard that the district is seeing increased special education needs, particularly among younger students.

Special Services Director Cherie Parker reported 340 students receiving special education services, an increase of 11 since the beginning of the school year. The district had 26 open referrals, including 19 at the primary school.

Parker said the influx is concentrated among prekindergarten and kindergarten students and described the group as having significant needs.

“The scary part is we’ve had such an influx of referrals at this age group, they’ve assigned us a second case manager,” Parker said. “So, it’s definitely a high need group.”

She said the challenges extend beyond special education. “This year has started off to be a challenge for many of our staff members, veteran or novice, pre-K to grade 12,” Parker said.

Plourde, while describing the start of the school year as unusually difficult, emphasized that the disciplinary problems do not define the broader student body.

“We’ve got great kids here at Spruce,” he said. “Great kids.”