Alexandria Times OpEd on disconnect of the superintendent's column and their column on MH issue

[Anonymous]

While I don't agree about "colorblindness", I get what they mean. I just wouldn't us that word. Read here:
https://alextimes.com/2022/12/our-view-lets-talk/

[Anonymous]

I can't find the column about "ACPS Simply the Best". That is apparently ACPS' theme this year. Geesh.

[Anonymous]

3) We need color-blind discipline in our schools. By this we mean that all students should be punished the same for committing the same infractions, and chronic, violent offenders need to be expelled for the greater good. There is nothing more equitable than trying to create a safe environment in which all students can learn.

I agree with some of it, but not this part. My son (who is not black or Latino) attends ACPS. His impression is that NO ONE is being disciplined. It's not that discipline is being meted out disproportionately.

[Anonymous]

2) Placing most of the city’s ninth graders together in one school just doesn’t work. The maturity level of many ninth graders does not match the freedom that being in high school brings. The new Minnie Howard building can’t get finished soon enough from our perspective; when completed, it needs to house students from all four high school grades. It’s also time to revisit the idea of a second high school in Alexandria, which should result in fewer students within each school building.

I agree that a 9th grade only school is a terrible idea. Kids connect positively through activities, but when kids are in MH, and the activities groups are through a different campus, it creates a disconnect. My older child was much happier in the main building (younger is not there yet).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

3) We need color-blind discipline in our schools. By this we mean that all students should be punished the same for committing the same infractions, and chronic, violent offenders need to be expelled for the greater good. There is nothing more equitable than trying to create a safe environment in which all students can learn.

I agree with some of it, but not this part. My son (who is not black or Latino) attends ACPS. His impression is that NO ONE is being disciplined. It's not that discipline is being meted out disproportionately.

It's the same as achievement. If the numbers have to be equal, the easiest way to achieve equality is to lower the bar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

3) We need color-blind discipline in our schools. By this we mean that all students should be punished the same for committing the same infractions, and chronic, violent offenders need to be expelled for the greater good. There is nothing more equitable than trying to create a safe environment in which all students can learn.

I agree with some of it, but not this part. My son (who is not black or Latino) attends ACPS. His impression is that NO ONE is being disciplined. It's not that discipline is being meted out disproportionately.

I agree with your concern here. From your description, it sounds like ACPS has addressed the disproportionate punishments for students of color with not disciplining anyone which clearly is a problem. ACPS needs to figure out how to impose discipline in a fair way (I understand why the editorial writing say “colorblind” but administrators still need to be on guard against disproportionately disciplining students of color over the long run since historically that has been a problem).

In all, it is complicated and I doubt ACPS can handle complicated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

3) We need color-blind discipline in our schools. By this we mean that all students should be punished the same for committing the same infractions, and chronic, violent offenders need to be expelled for the greater good. There is nothing more equitable than trying to create a safe environment in which all students can learn.

I agree with some of it, but not this part. My son (who is not black or Latino) attends ACPS. His impression is that NO ONE is being disciplined. It's not that discipline is being meted out disproportionately.

I agree with your concern here. From your description, it sounds like ACPS has addressed the disproportionate punishments for students of color with not disciplining anyone which clearly is a problem. ACPS needs to figure out how to impose discipline in a fair way (I understand why the editorial writing say “colorblind” but administrators still need to be on guard against disproportionately disciplining students of color over the long run since historically that has been a problem).

In all, it is complicated and I doubt ACPS can handle complicated.

To have the numbers not look disproportionate, they are going to have to find white and asian kids brawling in the same numbers. Have you seen the videos? The only way to make it work is to either drum up infractions for white and asian kids or to come down disproportionately hard on white and asian kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

3) We need color-blind discipline in our schools. By this we mean that all students should be punished the same for committing the same infractions, and chronic, violent offenders need to be expelled for the greater good. There is nothing more equitable than trying to create a safe environment in which all students can learn.

I agree with some of it, but not this part. My son (who is not black or Latino) attends ACPS. His impression is that NO ONE is being disciplined. It's not that discipline is being meted out disproportionately.

I agree with your concern here. From your description, it sounds like ACPS has addressed the disproportionate punishments for students of color with not disciplining anyone which clearly is a problem. ACPS needs to figure out how to impose discipline in a fair way (I understand why the editorial writing say “colorblind” but administrators still need to be on guard against disproportionately disciplining students of color over the long run since historically that has been a problem).

In all, it is complicated and I doubt ACPS can handle complicated.

To have the numbers not look disproportionate, they are going to have to find white and asian kids brawling in the same numbers. Have you seen the videos? The only way to make it work is to either drum up infractions for white and asian kids or to come down disproportionately hard on white and asian kids

Yes. I agree with you about what the videos appear to show. But, there is has to be awareness of the long term disproportionate school punishment. ACPS needs to take necessary steps to provide a safe and secure learning environment while not being discriminatory. Right now, ACPS is failing at all of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

3) We need color-blind discipline in our schools. By this we mean that all students should be punished the same for committing the same infractions, and chronic, violent offenders need to be expelled for the greater good. There is nothing more equitable than trying to create a safe environment in which all students can learn.

I agree with some of it, but not this part. My son (who is not black or Latino) attends ACPS. His impression is that NO ONE is being disciplined. It's not that discipline is being meted out disproportionately.

I agree with your concern here. From your description, it sounds like ACPS has addressed the disproportionate punishments for students of color with not disciplining anyone which clearly is a problem. ACPS needs to figure out how to impose discipline in a fair way (I understand why the editorial writing say “colorblind” but administrators still need to be on guard against disproportionately disciplining students of color over the long run since historically that has been a problem).

In all, it is complicated and I doubt ACPS can handle complicated.

To have the numbers not look disproportionate, they are going to have to find white and asian kids brawling in the same numbers. Have you seen the videos? The only way to make it work is to either drum up infractions for white and asian kids or to come down disproportionately hard on white and asian kids

Yes. I agree with you about what the videos appear to show. But, there is has to be awareness of the long term disproportionate school punishment. ACPS needs to take necessary steps to provide a safe and secure learning environment while not being discriminatory. Right now, ACPS is failing at all of it.

Providing a safe environment means removing children who engage in certain activities. Removing those children is going to look like disproportionate punishment. ACPS can't have it both ways and right now they are choosing to not punish

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

3) We need color-blind discipline in our schools. By this we mean that all students should be punished the same for committing the same infractions, and chronic, violent offenders need to be expelled for the greater good. There is nothing more equitable than trying to create a safe environment in which all students can learn.

I agree with some of it, but not this part. My son (who is not black or Latino) attends ACPS. His impression is that NO ONE is being disciplined. It's not that discipline is being meted out disproportionately.

I agree with your concern here. From your description, it sounds like ACPS has addressed the disproportionate punishments for students of color with not disciplining anyone which clearly is a problem. ACPS needs to figure out how to impose discipline in a fair way (I understand why the editorial writing say “colorblind” but administrators still need to be on guard against disproportionately disciplining students of color over the long run since historically that has been a problem).

In all, it is complicated and I doubt ACPS can handle complicated.

To have the numbers not look disproportionate, they are going to have to find white and asian kids brawling in the same numbers. Have you seen the videos? The only way to make it work is to either drum up infractions for white and asian kids or to come down disproportionately hard on white and asian kids

Yes. I agree with you about what the videos appear to show. But, there is has to be awareness of the long term disproportionate school punishment. ACPS needs to take necessary steps to provide a safe and secure learning environment while not being discriminatory. Right now, ACPS is failing at all of it.

Providing a safe environment means removing children who engage in certain activities. Removing those children is going to look like disproportionate punishment. ACPS can't have it both ways and right now they are choosing to not punish

I am not arguing with you that ACPS needs to take disciplinary action. It just has to be done in a way long term that is not overly broad (and this could amount to systematic racism).

[Anonymous]

It just has to be done in a way long term that is not overly broad (and this could amount to systematic racism).

I'm not sure what you mean. The circumstances that have gotten the students brawling in the first place are due to systematic racism. The question is, how to address the issue at this point. There is no way to do that which does not incorporate some consequence. We cannot eliminate hundreds of years of systemic racism that preceded this moment and got us to this point. We also cannot allow rapes to occur in bathrooms, or stabbings in parking lots near the school, or giant fights that knock administrators off their feet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

3) We need color-blind discipline in our schools. By this we mean that all students should be punished the same for committing the same infractions, and chronic, violent offenders need to be expelled for the greater good. There is nothing more equitable than trying to create a safe environment in which all students can learn.

I agree with some of it, but not this part. My son (who is not black or Latino) attends ACPS. His impression is that NO ONE is being disciplined. It's not that discipline is being meted out disproportionately.

I agree with your concern here. From your description, it sounds like ACPS has addressed the disproportionate punishments for students of color with not disciplining anyone which clearly is a problem. ACPS needs to figure out how to impose discipline in a fair way (I understand why the editorial writing say “colorblind” but administrators still need to be on guard against disproportionately disciplining students of color over the long run since historically that has been a problem).

In all, it is complicated and I doubt ACPS can handle complicated.

My son is Black and he reports the same, that NO ONE is being disciplined. He finds it frustrating and just walked home when this happened earlier this week. No one seemed to notice or care. I came home sick from work to find him at home. I agree with you that the administrators need to be on guard against disproportionate discipline for students of color. Or any group (special education or language learners for example).

[Anonymous]

Can someone post Dr. Kay-Wyatt's column that the Alexandria Times is referencing? Or is it in the ACPS Express?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

3) We need color-blind discipline in our schools. By this we mean that all students should be punished the same for committing the same infractions, and chronic, violent offenders need to be expelled for the greater good. There is nothing more equitable than trying to create a safe environment in which all students can learn.

I agree with some of it, but not this part. My son (who is not black or Latino) attends ACPS. His impression is that NO ONE is being disciplined. It's not that discipline is being meted out disproportionately.

I agree with your concern here. From your description, it sounds like ACPS has addressed the disproportionate punishments for students of color with not disciplining anyone which clearly is a problem. ACPS needs to figure out how to impose discipline in a fair way (I understand why the editorial writing say “colorblind” but administrators still need to be on guard against disproportionately disciplining students of color over the long run since historically that has been a problem).

In all, it is complicated and I doubt ACPS can handle complicated.

My son is Black and he reports the same, that NO ONE is being disciplined. He finds it frustrating and just walked home when this happened earlier this week. No one seemed to notice or care. I came home sick from work to find him at home. I agree with you that the administrators need to be on guard against disproportionate discipline for students of color. Or any group (special education or language learners for example).

If your DS was able to leave school without permission and no one said anything then yes, they must not be punishing anyone. That also seems like no one cares enough to keep track of students which actually might be more of a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

3) We need color-blind discipline in our schools. By this we mean that all students should be punished the same for committing the same infractions, and chronic, violent offenders need to be expelled for the greater good. There is nothing more equitable than trying to create a safe environment in which all students can learn.

I agree with some of it, but not this part. My son (who is not black or Latino) attends ACPS. His impression is that NO ONE is being disciplined. It's not that discipline is being meted out disproportionately.

I agree with your concern here. From your description, it sounds like ACPS has addressed the disproportionate punishments for students of color with not disciplining anyone which clearly is a problem. ACPS needs to figure out how to impose discipline in a fair way (I understand why the editorial writing say “colorblind” but administrators still need to be on guard against disproportionately disciplining students of color over the long run since historically that has been a problem).

In all, it is complicated and I doubt ACPS can handle complicated.

To have the numbers not look disproportionate, they are going to have to find white and asian kids brawling in the same numbers. Have you seen the videos? The only way to make it work is to either drum up infractions for white and asian kids or to come down disproportionately hard on white and asian kids

This is shockingly true. If you discipline 40 black students for being in a brawl then the school data is going to show very disproportionate punishments based on progressive thought. Sad that there is less liability for allowing unchecked violence in the school than for disciplining violent students.