Black students face stricter discipline

[Judi Lynn]

Black students face stricter discipline

MIAMI, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- A study says racial profiling is a problem in South Florida classrooms, with black students being arrested, suspended and expelled at higher rates.

The Advancement Project, a civic group based in Washington, said Miami-Dade school police arrested about 2,500 students last year. More than 50 percent of those arrested were black, even though black students make up only 28 percent of county enrollment, the Miami Herald reported.

In the 2003-2004 school year, black elementary students were five times more likely to be suspended than their white classmates.

Miami-Dade officials admit that disparities exist and that schools Police Chief Gerald Darling, Associate Superintendent Freddie Woodson and Superintendent Rudy Crew, all of whom are black, are sensitive to the issue, the newspaper said.

The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is holding public hearings in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties throughout the week.
(snip/...)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051017-22413100-bc-us-discipline.xml

From the Miami Herald: (Free subscription required)

Posted on Mon, Oct. 17, 2005
EDUCATION STUDY

Schools discipline blacks more than others

Black students are arrested, suspended and expelled at a higher rate than are other students, a study found.

BY PETER BAILEY
[e-mail]

Racial profiling permeates South Florida classrooms, as black students face suspension, expulsion and arrest at the hands of color-coded justice, a study says.

Citing a recent report from the Advancement Project, a civic group based in Washington, officials say that black students are disproportionately suspended, expelled and arrested in comparison to white classmates.

Last year, Miami-Dade school police arrested about 2,500 students, an increase of 50 percent from two years ago. More than 50 percent of those arrested were black, even though black students make up only 28 percent of county enrollment.
(snip)

But the report showed that less than 15 percent of the 2,500 Miami-Dade students arrested last year were charged with weapons- or drug-related offenses. About 10 percent of those arrested were under age 12.

Judith Browne, a senior attorney with the Advancement Project, said teachers are overreacting to minor offenses, especially with black males, who are viewed as a threat.

''They're seen as a criminal waiting to happen,'' she said.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/12920964.htm

[journalist3072]

1. Aaah.....life in Jeb Bush's Florida! eom

[harlinnchi]

2. To some folks these threads pervert the idea of LBN...

...in that it's (geez, another thread makes me think 'bout that apostrophe) only news to some of y'all. To many of us this will seem like a 'Dog Chases Cat, Pees on Hydrant' kinda headline. Criminalizing Black actions and behavior doesn't just happen in the courtroom. It is a community-wide pursuit.

I've heard folks who provides student data to the commonwealth from Philly assert that 3rd grade achievement and suspension rates are used as predictors of future criminal activity rates. I'm fairly sure that is not the case ( I cannot imagine the model being closed enough) but that they feel it to be so is significant.

[harlinnchi]

3. That was more harsh than I intended.

I'm not attacking those who are optimistic in view. I just think that they likely would not connect the various dots like this topic into a larger picture that gives a greater sense of how bad things might be.

[Solly Mack]

4. You aren't being harsh , you're stating a fact

[Solly Mack]

5. This has been happening since my primary school days (1968)

that it continues shows just how little has changed

[Blaq Dem]

7. Hey, is that a banana in your pocket?

LOL

[Solly Mack]

8. Yes, but he's not very happy

:)

[Tomee450]

17. It happens all over the United States.

The same thing happened when I was in school. Black kids misbehave and they are suspended or expelled. White kids do exactly the same thing and their parents are called in to discuss the matter. The white kid usually was given a slap on the wrist and allowed to stay in school. African Americans students have been thrown out of school for minor offenses.

[Solly Mack]

18. Yep. Exactly.

At my old high school it also went by money - the white kids with professional parents caught a break when they broke a rule but the poor white kids would get in trouble. Though not as severe as black students. (detention verses suspension/expulsion kind of thing)

I would get into logger-heads with my principal because of the biased rules too.

My old high school also set a good many black students and poor white students up for failure in life by not challenging them - placing them in classes that weren't geared toward achievement (college, tech) but instead placing them in a class below their capability levels. It was so obviously deliberate too.

[Blaq Dem]

6. Duh! Since when have black students not faced harsher discipline?

It's been like this since time immemorial. It's no surprise. I guess these are the kids Bill Bennett wants aborted.

[ninkasi]

9. Some people in the white community...

are apparently too dim to realize that if you treat a child like a suspected criminal from childhood on, disrespect him and his family, and treat him unfairly, he just might be tempted at some point to decide "Why bother?"

It might seem that no matter what he does, he's going to be viewed with suspicion, and treated unfairly, so he may as well stop trying. What a shame. I wonder how many potential doctors, scientists, and writers, for example, have abandoned their educations because of such factors? We are really doing the country as a whole a disservice by writing off an entire race because of bigotry and idiotic attitudes.

I am white, by the way, but have seen the same results when parents treat children in the same family differently. My much loved by me younger brother could never do anything right, according to our dad. That brother took his tortured life years ago, so this is a sensitive issue with me, but for our purposes, we can look at the human race as being one big family, and see that the results are the same.

[VespertineIconoclast]

10. You’re right --

The term for this is self-fulfilling prophecy. Here are some links if anyone is interested:
http://nadabs.tripod.com/team/prophecy.html
http://www.motivation-tools.com/workplace/social_prejudice.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-fulfilling_prophecy

-VI

[mseang]

14. Stereotype Threat

Another term for this condition or situation is Stereotype Threat. See the following article for a better description than I could provide.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/092404/steele.shtml

[VespertineIconoclast]

15. Thanks mseang!

I had heard about the studies mentioned in the article, but not the term. Good info.

-VI

[newyawker99]

20. Hi VespertineIconoclast!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[cantstandbush]

11. Why do you think black crime RATE is higher than for whites? Same reason.

More blacks are charged and arrested for the same crimes white are let go or strike deals.

[MountainLaurel]

12. One of the issues here

Is the disparity in enforcement, conviction, and mandatory jail time between those caught with crack cocaine and those with powder cocaine.

[knitter4democracy]

13. Nothing new here.

I saw it when I taught. I can't even begin to recount all the crap other teachers told me about how African Americans have a different culture and need to be more rigorously disciplined in order to survive in the real world or how they're just naturally louder and need to be taught how to be quieter and all sorts of crap.

I had a student once who was one of the brightest, funniest, and most intellectually challenging students I had ever had. I loved him, as he often helped me get through my day. The other senior teachers didn't like him so much, as he challenged them more than they were used to.

One day, he really got in my face about something, and I reacted too strongly, and we both got into it after class. I finally heard what he was saying after I calmed down a bit, that he thought I had been disrespectful (I had) and too harsh (definitely true). I told him that I knew he was a class leader and had been worried that the other students would follow his lead if I didn't regain class control right there and apologized for being too harsh and disrespectful.

I told him that I really enjoyed having him in my class, that I thought he should've been in my AP classes instead and that I needed him to keep challenging me and questioning everything. He didn't give me an iota of trouble the rest of the year.

I had many students of all colors and backgrounds who became true successes because they were believed in. I have also seen others give up due to self-fulfilling prophecy. There's just too much to fight for some of them, and so they act out. It's a good teacher's job to really see what is inside and see if he or she can draw that out.

[meow2u3]

16. That's cuz the rich white trash are the real criminals

They're looking for poor black kids to be their scapegoats.

[chalky]

19. Every few years the lesson has to be relearned. Or at least, retaught.

Doesn't seem like the lesson ever really gets learned.

Check out this Time Magazine article from way back in 2002:

For years black parents have quietly seethed about stories like Russell's {subject of the article}. Now civil rights groups have given those silent suspicions a recognizable name: racial profiling. They contend that not unlike police who stop people on the basis of race, teachers and school officials discipline black students more often — and more harshly — than whites. The result: black students are more likely to slip behind in their studies and abandon school altogether — if they're not kicked out first.

Oh, and if you'll scroll down to the bottom of the page, you'll see yet another article on the subject found in Time's archives--from 1994.