Having just heard about another ridiculous public school suspension for one of my son's African American friends, I pass along this information from the Indiana University's "Safe and Responsive Schools Project" study of suspensions in the US:
In Minnesota in the 2000-2001 school year, 6% of all students were suspended, while 34% of African American students were suspended. This is a travesty! The black kids know it from an early age -- my son and his friends started talking in third grade about how the black kids get suspended [yes, in third grade] for things that the white kids don't. And now, we see from the data that he's right -- almost 6 times as many black kids get suspended. And it's especially bad given that the research shows clearly that suspension doesn't do anything but send kids on their way to the juvenile justice system. I recently asked a number of teachers from different schools why they don't have in-school "suspensions" -- where you get sent down to the office instead of home where your mom and dad are at work and it's a little mini-vacation, and they said that they didn't have the personnel to supervise them. I remember when I was in school back in the oh-dark-fifties, and no one thought it was fun to get sent to the principal's office for the day. This is really a travesty -- and continues to perpetuate racism. I also think, from what I've seen, that the black kids are perceived as more threatening -- due to language, posture perhaps -- than the white kids because most of the teachers are white. If we had any extra money in the schools, I would want to have lots of African American professionals brought into the schools to work with the white teachers and the kids to turn this around. diane wiley, disgusted and dismayed in tangletown REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
