{"id":43349,"date":"2023-10-03T13:46:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T20:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=43349"},"modified":"2023-10-03T13:46:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T20:46:16","slug":"nm-attorney-general-explains-move-to-take-over-yazzie-martinez-case-gallup-mckinley-county-schools-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/nm-attorney-general-explains-move-to-take-over-yazzie-martinez-case-gallup-mckinley-county-schools-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"NM Attorney General Explains Move to Take Over Yazzie-Martinez Case & Gallup-McKinley County Schools Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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New Mexico Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez said he is ready to \u201ctest the limits\u201d of whether the state constitution gives him the authority to assume control of the state\u2019s defense in the 2018 Yazzie-Martinez court case, but hopes it doesn\u2019t come to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is something we will do if we have to, but again my hope in this is that we start having conversations,\u201d Torrez said during an on-camera interview with New Mexico In Depth and New Mexico In Focus on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, Torrez announced his intention to take over the landmark case due to the \u201cslow progress\u201d by the administration of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in presenting a plan to reform the state\u2019s public schools. Then-state District Court Judge Sarah Singleton ruled in 2018 \u2014 before her death the following year \u2014 that the state of New Mexico had violated the educational rights of Native American, English language-learning, disabled and low-income children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to Torrez on Friday afternoon, Caroline Sweeney, a spokesperson for the governor, said: \u201cWe have never challenged the AG\u2019s authority to represent the state. It is our understanding that the Attorney General has not had any conversations with leadership at the Public Education Department, and we would be happy to brief him on the exhaustive work the Department has undertaken to improve education in New Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the governor does decide to dispute Torrez\u2019s bid to take over the case, it remains unclear who would settle the question, although the courts are a likely venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the ruling, Yazzie-Martinez advocates and plaintiffs have viewed the Lujan Grisham administration as resistant to making major changes to reform education. In 2020, the administration asked a state judge to end court oversight of the case, saying the state had fully complied with Singleton\u2019s ruling. The judge denied that request, saying oversight should stay in place until long-term reforms are adopted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The governor defends her administration\u2019s oversight of the case by pointing out the state has dramatically increased the dollars flowing to the state\u2019s nearly 90 local school districts since the 2018 ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the new infusion of funding has not diminished dissatisfaction on the part of the legal team representing the Yazzie-Martinez plaintiffs. The team has \u201cexpressed frustration about the lack of a specific plan,\u201d Torrez said, adding that there have been aspirational reports but nothing concrete from the state Public Education Department. \u201cThere is not a clear road map for progress, hitting certain milestones by certain dates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the saddest things I\u2019ve learned from the Yazzie-Martinez team is that there has been no effective communication,\u201d Torrez added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A moral obligation to protect the state\u2019s children is a major factor driving his move to take over the case, Torrez said, adding: \u201cHad I been in this role earlier I probably would have assumed the role of plaintiffs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking up the bat for kids includes school discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How school districts discipline children fits squarely into that obligation he feels to protect children as attorney general, the first-term, Democratic AG and career prosecutors told New Mexico In Depth and NMiF. That\u2019s why he has decided to open an investigation into expulsion and long-term suspension rates of mostly Navajo students at Gallup McKinley County Schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica reported 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have known for some time that there is disproportionate punishment not only in New Mexico but across the country for children of color,\u201d the attorney general said Thursday. \u201cWe also know that the disruption of their ability to attain an education actually increases all sorts of really difficult and dangerous and likely outcomes as adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the root causes for the pipeline that we have from under-resourced communities to the criminal justice system and jail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Torrez, who served as Bernalillo County\u2019s district attorney before becoming attorney general, said he wants to try \u201cto do everything that I can to limit the times that law enforcement is called upon to intervene\u201d in violent or dangerous situations involving adults. Alluding to the school-to-prison pipeline in which students might first encounter law enforcement in a classroom setting, and then are swept into the criminal justice system, Torrez said if that means \u201ctalking to school districts about their disciplinary policies and trying to figure out whether or not there are disproportionate impacts on communities of color, that\u2019s what we are going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallup McKinley Superintendent Mike Hyatt has repeatedly disputed the findings from New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica, including in the lead-up to this week\u2019s interview with Torrez. In an email to NMiF, Hyatt called the conclusions reported in December\u2019s story \u201cfalse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news outlets spent months reporting and analyzing discipline data provided to the news outlets by the Public Education Department, including Gallup McKinley\u2019s own discipline data, which it had shared with the state agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that time, Hyatt and other Gallup McKinley school officials repeatedly declined requests for comment. Hyatt also chose not to respond to a 10-page letter sent nearly six weeks before publication in which the news outlets detailed their findings, requested an interview and sought any clarifications or corrections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with the Gallup Sun weekly newspaper earlier this year, Hyatt said his district had misreported long-term suspensions to the state Public Education Department (PED) as expulsions. But Gallup McKinley\u2019s 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 New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his email to NMiF, Hyatt said his school district \u201chas had no official notification of an investigation by the AG,\u201d adding that \u201can investigation will be a waste of tax dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in Thursday\u2019s interview Torrez said he met with Hyatt at his office in Albuquerque on Sept. 7 after the superintendent contacted him. Torrez’s spokeswoman, Lauren Rodriguez, confirmed the meeting was at Torrez’s Albuquerque’s offices between Torrez, Hyatt, and a Santa Fe-based lobbyist, J.D. Bullington, who came to the meeting with Hyatt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe told them our plans,\u201d Torrez said during the interview. \u201cTo their credit they said they were willing to provide any information and give broader context.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high disciplinary rates meted out by the Gallup McKinley district against mostly Navajo students has generated concern in the Gallup community, with some members of the community expressing outrage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attorney general said Thursday he plans to meet with the president of the Navajo Nation in the next few weeks to talk about several issues, including the high rates of expulsions and long-term suspensions at the Gallup McKinley school district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Trip Jennings, Executive Director, New Mexico In Depth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was reported and published in collaboration with New Mexico In Depth, a NMPBS partner<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n