Reply to 2015 study on school punishment: black students get criminalized, whites get medicated & therapy

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Reply to "2015 study on school punishment: black students get criminalized, whites get medicated & therapy"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here

I have actually seen this in action growing up. I grew up in a very diverse neighborhood in Queens, NY.  My elementary school was about 20/40/40 asian/white/black & hispanic.  In 5th grade, I got into an argument with a black kid from a different class. I started it by making fun of his sister, who I actually had a crush on (I'm Irish).  We ended up fighting during lunch one day. I was sent home and was allowed to come back the next day. They sent a letter to my parents and essentially gave me a warning. The black kid, who was really more of a quiet guy who kept to himself and who was very smart since he was in the gifted program (like me), got expelled. This was during the middle of the school year.

Later on in HS, I saw the kid again on an opposing basketball team. He remembered me and we actually became friends. But the expulsion had a severe impact on him. After being expelled, he ended up going to an elementary school primarily made up of "troubled youths." No more gifted program.  He got into more trouble as he fell in with the wrong crowd.  Despite this, according to him at the time, he scored well enough on city-wide HS entrance exams to get into some of the better HSs in NYC ( I didn't), but they would not accept him because of his prior school record. He ended up going to one of the worst HSs in the city (which was his zone school unfortunately).  JR year he was busted with weed at his school and they arrested him for possession. He did 6 months time.

I am facebook friends with him now, but from what I can tell, 10 years out of HS, he has multiple kids and doesn't seem to have a stable job. Hes a grown man and made his choices. But still, I wonder sometimes what would have happened if he never got suspended. I have no idea how that impacts a child. Especially while their brains are still developing.

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I agree that this sounds egregious to me. However, is it possible that the black boy had committed other offenses at the school previously that you are unaware of? Seeing as schools cannot share info about other students to students, it is possible that you were unaware of the complete situation.  Something like this could explain the disparity in punishments. OTOH if he did not have other offenses than he should have received equal punishments.[/quote]

[b]PP - you are still missing the point and simultaneously demonstrating the thinking that goes along with the disparate treatment.  The incident should have been treated as an isolated one.  He said they were both in gifted classes and that the black child was quiet.  So even if the child had a previous  incident, combining it with that fight is wrong and unfair to a child and would not have been done to a white child.  One fight should not have, on any level, justified an expulsion.  [/b][/quote]

Again, all I am suggesting is that other parents and students are not privy to all that goes on with a particular student due to privacy laws. From experience, I have seen different classmates of my kid describe the same situation in completely different ways on multiple occasions. Also, from my work experience, I saw how incorrect recollections of particular events were frequently spread around the work force. So, IMHO it is quite possible that one does not have all the facts. OTOH I agree that instances of racism have occurred in our school systems.[/quote]

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