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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is an issue in public and private schools, OP. [b]In public schools, black males have a different suspension rate for the exact same offenses. It's just how the world is.[/b] You are at the school, hopefully, because you have identified something your child gets there that he cannot get anywhere else, not because paying tuition entitles you to a life void of racism. We all have to work toward that together.

I can tell you that the same attitudes exist amongst parents in the public/charter school world in DC as well. "How can we get the poor kids out of the school that is in our neighborhood?" "How can we get more white kids to the school?" "Yes, the school has lots of AAs but they are high-SES, so, you know..."

You live with this, you deal with this and you always will. The US has a strong legacy of racism. The best thing you can do for your child is to give him a great education so that he can help to educate the world out of ignorance. He will know what it means to be on the outside (and btw unless he goes to an HBCU, he will experience this at the next level anyway) and hopefully he can turn that into something positive. To be young, gifted and black...a blessing and a curse. [/quote]

I call bs on the bolded comment above, cite the source, and post a link to the peer reviewed jouranl article and let';s see the sample size, longitudinal range of teh study, etc..[/quote]

I would be interested if there is a reference as well, because although I have read that blacks are disciplined more than whites, I have never seen that assertion paired with data saying that the disparate treatment is for the same offenses. I believe some will say just the higher amount of disciplinary actions are dispositive, but it seems reasonable (and it would be good to see a study disproving or proving it) that children from more challenged SES backgrounds may commit more offenses at school.  If there are proportionally more blacks living under the poverty line than their percentage in the population, then that could (haven't seen research either way) also be reflected in beviorL patterns at school.

To give a related analogy, the high Latino drop-out rate is generally attributed in part to cultural factors that can influence kids to drop out of school to get a job as soon as possible.  If there weren't the information out here on the cultural piece, people could say that he mere fact of higher Latino drop-out rate to racism in the schools (which may also exist as a confounding factor).

So, again, I don't reject the assertion that in public schools blacks are punished more harshly than whites for the same offense, but I'd want to see the studies.  In independent schools, I only have observation at one school to go by, which means nothing quantifiably, but at least for my peace of mind the discipline has been meted out fairly regardless of race.  I've certainly heard stories at other schools of donors' kids/board kids getting better deals, which is not strictly tied to race but could correlate somewhat if we're taking multi-generational alum/donor family given the historic lack of diversity a couple generations back.
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Are you a school administrator?  Do you have internal information that the discipline has been meted fairly?[/quote]

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