Baltimore, MD - The NAACP has filed a follow-up complaint claiming racial bias in student discipline at Anne Arundel County schools

Letter says African-American students still disciplined disproportionately, seven years after original complaint. 

The complaint, filed with the civil rights office of the U.S. Department of Education on Friday, alleges that the numbers of African-American students referred for discipline and suspended have hardly changed since a similar complaint in 2004. That complaint led to an improvement plan agreed to in 2005 by the NAACP and the school system.

"Six years later, however, there has been no marked improvement in the disparate treatment of African-American students in disciplinary actions, which continues a pattern of denial and limitation of their educational opportunities and thus their future sustainability," the new complaint reads.

"We want to know why it hasn't gotten better and what's being done," said Jacqueline Boone Allsup, president of the county branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Bob Mosier, a spokesman for the school system, said, "Our progress at closing the gaps has been slower than we would have liked and slower than the community would have liked. But this is a societal issue, and we are devoting considerable energy to it."

Mosier said he found it "disconcerting" that the complaint was aired publicly before a meeting scheduled Tuesday between Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell and leaders of the county's African-American community.

Mosier said Maxwell scheduled the meeting when he became aware of community concerns about the discipline numbers. But he said the superintendent was not aware the formal complaint was coming. Mosier said the nature of the release "flies in the face of the collaborative dialogue that has always been a part of this process."

Despite that, Allsup said, she's hopeful about the Tuesday discussion.

"I'm optimistic that he'll be receptive," she said of Maxwell. "I'm sure he wants to see the gap close as much as we do."

The NAACP president said she hopes a renewed plan of action will come out of the complaint. "I hope that we can all come to the table," she said. "We can come together to look at the problem and come up with strategies to produce solutions."

The letter also alleges that the NAACP has received a spate of recent complaints from African-American teachers claiming racial discrimination in discipline, professional evaluation and promotion.