Angela Comfort still can’t explain exactly what went wrong.
Her son, Jordan, an honors student in Garland, Texas, got in trouble with school officials this February for distributing flyers on campus about a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Students all over North Texas were planning a walkout, and the teen was eager to participate.
Instead, administrators suspended him and warned further punishment was possible.
“I didn’t even let him go near the school” the day of the protest, Comfort said. “No new behavior could have been seen to warrant any kind of new discipline.”
Still, that afternoon, an email came from the school: Jordan was being assigned to the district’s Disciplinary Alternative Education Program. An administrator later said Jordan was facing a six-week placement for being disruptive, according to Comfort. If he behaved well and took behavior and anger management classes, he could be out in five weeks, she recalled.