ELGIN, Texas – A Texas school district is facing criticism over its student suspension policy after one mother came forward to highlight that her son was suspended more than 100 times in his first three years of school.

Kavion Blackmer attended Booker T. Washington Elementary school in the Elgin Independent School District, where he racked up “at least 100 out-of-school suspensions” by the third grade, the student’s mother, Latasha Blackmer, told KHOU.com.

“Kindergarten, I know he was suspended probably more than 40 times,” Blackmer said. “He didn’t try because everyone thought he was a failure and his mom didn’t even believe what was going on.”

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Blackmer told the news site her son suffers from several learning disabilities including a mood disorder, separation anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but alleges school officials did little to work with her son.

KVUE reports she sued the school district to move her son to a new school, where his grades have improve dramatically.

“He has straight As and Bs. We have not had any behavior issues out of him at all,” Blackmer said.

An analysis conducted by KVUE shows Elgin ISD suspends more elementary students than any of the 20 largest school districts in Central Texas, and significantly more than the statewide average.

Elgin ISD suspended nearly 7 percent of its elementary student population last year, according to data from the Texas Education Agency, compared to a statewide average of 4.4 percent.

Last year, the suspension rate translated into 151 elementary suspensions, though Elgin suspension rates for middle and high school students are closer to average.

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“So, the concern is that if you’re starting that with students at a very young age, the likelihood of those poor outcomes (increases) with each disciplinary referral,” according to Deborah Fowler, executive director of Texas Appleseed, an education advocacy group.

Texas Appleseed highlighted the suspension problem for the media, but Elgin superintendent Jodi Duron said she doesn’t believe the district is overly harsh with students. She said the figures reported by Texas Appleseed don’t reflect the fact that many of the student suspensions were in-school suspensions.

“You know, I put a lot of faith in our administrators,” Duron said. “I think they use their professional judgment. They are not going to send a student home unless they have done everything they know how to do.”

The real problem, Duron alleges, is money.

The district apparently needs more of it to control students.

Duron said Texas education funding is based on a Cost of Education Index set up in 1991, and alleges that while the district’s percentage of poor student increased by 30 percent in the last 25 years, its Cost of Education Index has not, KHOU reports.

But Duron also provided figures that erode her own argument. While the percentage of poor students has increased in recent years, the number of student suspensions has actually decreased from 740 in 2012 to 612 last year.

“Yet, our resources haven’t increased to help support the needs of those students,” Duron said.

Texas Appleseed points to two alternative behavior intervention models that focuses on personal interactions and supporting positive behavior as effective means for controlling rowdy students.

Those alternatives include punishments like community and school service, counseling, restitution, detention, mentoring, behavioral contracts, and loss of privileges like lunch, recess and social time.