HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — A local middle school girl nearly got kicked out of school and had a warrant out for her arrest for writing on a school wall.
We've learned the incident is now leading to changes on how all Georgia students are disciplined.
Just a year ago, Channel 2 Action News talked to Mikia Hutchings, a shy 12-year-old in Henry County, who was called an example of everything that's wrong with the system.
"It set off really an uproar in the community," said State Sen. Emanuel Jones.
Jones got involved after hearing Mikia was suspended, almost expelled, then charged criminally for writing on a locker room wall at Dutchtown Middle school.
"She wrote the word 'hi', H-I," Mikia's grandmother said.
Jones says a white student with her at the time wasn't as severely punished.
He formed a student discipline committee that held hearings and performed a statewide study. He says it revealed unfair punishment for black students.
Jones helped create new legislation that has passed and is waiting for the governor's signature. It is designed to change the punishment.
There are new policies at Eagle's Landing Middle School that are already working, according to principal Earlene Crump, who's taking over as Henry County's new director of student discipline.
"Our disciplinary hearings have dropped about 70 percent," Crump said.
She says starting with little changes such as rewarding good behavior and changing the way they look at students who act out ultimately helps those students stay in class.
"The thrust behind all this is to keep kids in school and to intervene early. And intervene with positive intervention," Jones said.
"If we do these things, we'll keep kids in class, kids will do better academically and then they'll also love school," Crump said.
Mikia's case was taken up by Georgia Legal Services, who filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice.
She was suspended and charged and spent last summer doing community service. She served it at the state Capitol working in Jones' office.
WSBTV
