The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Wednesday ruled that two South Carolina school disturbance laws cannot be used to prosecute students for disruptive behavior. The court said that children as young as seven were referred to prosecutors by their schools under these laws.
One law makes it a crime to “conduct [one]self in a disorderly or boisterous manner” or use profanity near a schoolhouse. The other, South Carolina’s so-called “disturbing schools law,” makes it a crime to disturb or loiter in a school building. The disturbing schools law was later amended in 2018 to exclude students from its scope.
The laws generated particular controversy because of their impact on Black students. The court specifically mentioned that “evidence submitted… shows that between 2015 and 2020, Black youth were charged with disorderly conduct for incidents in schools at roughly seven times the rate of their white peers.”
