A South Jersey high school student was kicked out for fighting. Her mother has spent the year trying to overturn the suspension.

After Sania Anderson joined in on a cafeteria fight last March at Kingsway Regional High School in Woolwich Township, Gloucester County, she was suspended for eight days.

It turned out to be indefinite.

In the nearly 12 months since Anderson has been barred from school, a costly legal battle has played out between her mother and the South Jersey school system. The main issue: While the school has wanted Anderson to undergo a risk assessment and a psychological evaluation, her mother, Naimah Howard, has refused to comply, arguing that such tests are both unnecessary and unfair, and could result in unfairly classifying her daughter as having special needs.

She also has contended that the severity of her daughter’s punishment is because she and the other students who were involved in the fight are Black.

“This was an isolated incident. Nothing in her academic record showed that she needs this type of intervention,” said Howard, 40. “This is wrong on all levels.”

In the meantime, Anderson, 16, now a junior, continues to be homeschooled — albeit with two hours a week of algebra at Kingsway — having missed a year’s worth of classes, school dances, and extracurricular activities such as the multicultural club. Her mother says she is falling behind academically and worries that could jeopardize her college plans.

The case is the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights following Howard’s complaint alleging disparate treatment and discipline of Black students by the district. It is one of nearly a dozen pending New Jersey cases alleging discriminatory discipline.

Howard also contends that the district is retaliating against her daughter because Howard challenged the punishment. The department of education declined to comment on the case.

In recent years, how schools discipline Black and Latino students has come under increased scrutiny around the country. In June, the Biden administration urged districts to investigate whether their policies were consistent for students in all racial and ethnic groups. The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education warned that schools that unfairly disciplined students would violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination in federally funded programs.

In New Jersey, state Attorney General Matthew Platkin, citing disproportionate discipline for some students of color compared with the same actions committed by their white peers, last August issued guidelines, along with acting state education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan, on steps schools should take to ensure that their policies treat all students fairly.

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“There are way too many racial disparities in school disciplines,” said Joe Johnson, policy counsel for ACLU-NJ, which pushed the state to pass a bill taking effect in April requiring public schools to release demographics on its disciplinary action.

Here is the Office for Civil Rights’ acknowledgment that it is investigating the district.

According to the New Jersey Department of Education, although Black students comprise only 15.5% of the state’s student population, they account for 29.8% of referrals from schools to law enforcement, and 28.9% of arrests in schools. (The majority of law enforcement referrals in the 2018-19 school year, the latest statistics available, didn’t involve guns or dangerous weapons, drugs, threats of violence, assaults on teachers, sexual assault or child abuse, the state said.)

Anderson enrolled in Kingsway for the 2022-23 school year after attending the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush High School in Philadelphia.

During her first semester in 10th grade, she was in danger of failing geometry and U.S. history, her teachers said in a report by the district to Howard. Teachers did praise the teen’s behavioral performance, citing, however, the occasional negative influence from her peers. The only discipline Anderson had received at the school was getting an administrative warning for being late to school three times, according to the district.

“She always participates in class; she is hard-working, smart, sweet, good-natured and kind,” wrote her English II teachers.

Then Anderson got into a fight on March 6, 2023. The teen said she was trying to break up a fight among a group of girls when she was struck twice in the head by one of those students, according to documents in the case.

According to the district, Anderson punched a student on the ground several times and several students and staff members were injured attempting to break up the fight.

All four of the students involved were suspended and charged with simple assault by Woolwich police, according to Howard, who contends that no one was seriously injured or required medical attention. The other students have since left the district, she said.

A day before Anderson was scheduled to return to school, Kingsway Superintendent James Lavender in a March 16 letter reversed her eight-day suspension and instead placed her on long-term suspension. The district cited “the egregious nature” of Anderson’s conduct.

In that same letter to Howard, Lavender said the teen had been referred to the district’s child study team “for an evaluation to determine if such misconduct arises from a disability entitling your child to additional protection and services under the School Laws.” The district cited emotional regulation impairment, difficulty controlling her emotions, as a possible disability.

A Family Court judge cleared Anderson of the assault charge that April, and it was expunged from her juvenile record in June, documents show, after she wrote a 500-word essay on avoiding confrontations.

The district recommended a psychological evaluation, a social history assessment, a psychiatric evaluation and an evaluation plan. It even sought a court order to compel Howard to agree to those conditions but later withdrew that request.

Margaret A. Miller, a labor and education lawyer representing the district, said the district was prohibited from commenting because the matter involves a student.

In an appeal in October to commissioner Allen-McMillan seeking to have Anderson returned to school, Howard’s lawyer Sarah Zuba contended that Kingsway violated its disciplinary rules by not holding mandated hearings within required dates. She said Anderson was disciplined under a student code of conduct that includes stiffer penalties, and the psychological assessment requirement was adopted after her fighting incident.

Zuba said “the board’s vote to continue an indefinite, long-term suspension with no clear conditions for return documented in writing was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable in light of the offense.”

Howard eventually agreed to an independent risk assessment. In a counteroffer, the district said it would accept Howard’s demands and Anderson could return to school if the family dropped its civil rights complaint and agreed not to sue the district. Howard refused and now it remains unclear whether Anderson can return to school.

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Gloucester County NAACP president Loretta Winters said she tried to intervene months ago to help reach an agreement.

“It’s unacceptable that the child is still out of school,” Winters said Tuesday.

Howard believes the saga continues because of her daughter’s race: In a school with about 2,765 students, only 11.2% are Black.

Johnson, the ACLU lawyer, said the case was unusual and warrants further scrutiny. He said “it would be foolish” not to consider racial bias as a factor.

“We would need to see proof this is the way it is playing out every time a student is in a fight, Black or white,” Johnson said.

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Howard said the matter is taking a toll on her daughter. The teen is undergoing treatment for post-traumatic distress. Howard wants her lawyer to reach a settlement with Kingsway to lift the suspension and allow her daughter to transfer to another district — even if she has to pay tuition and transportation costs.

“I want my daughter back in school because that’s where she belongs,” Howard said.