Learning While Black [Kid starts a fight at school. Kid's dad, angry his son got punished, sues.]

http://www.time.com/time/education/article/0,8599,238611,00.html ^ | June 5, 2002 | Jodie Morse

[sandydipper]

It doesn't matter - Russell can quit school and get a job with either the city, county or federal government and he'll be promoted right up through the ranks. Not because he's the most qialified or has seniority - but because he's black and we all know that 20% of management in government jobs has to be black.

[Lancey Howard]

"Schools now call in the police if a student is talking too much or doesn't do his homework," says Pedro Noguera, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Ah-HA! There is the giveaway.... is this from Blue Brick or The Onion?

[Teacher317]

Although officials from the local Modesto school district ruled the scuffle "mutual," the white classmate received a three-day suspension while Russell was sent home for a little more than a month and later expelled from his school and assigned to one farther from where he lives.

This is exceedingly common in schools. We simply use a 'ladder' of consequences. If boy #1 has been in 3 fights, has been suspended twice, and has had several detentions for tardiness, he's getting really close to expulsion procedures. If boy #2 has had one detention for not doing his homework, then he's nowhere near expulsion procedures. Race has nothing to do with it. It's simply the past behavior that is relevant.

This should be an easy lawsuit to close... depending on the racial composition of the judge and jury.

[iconoclast]

according to The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, The syndrome has even acquired a catchphrase: "learning while black."

The good folks at Harvard came close to conducting a worthwhile study. Please try again folks with "DISRUPTING learning while black". Compulsory education beyond age 13 is a concept past it's time.

[Lancey Howard]

Russell is indifferent to the charges flying around him. He has more urgent matters to attend to, like the D and the F on his latest report card and whether they will affect his prospects for studying architecture in college

Say what?
How would those grades affect anything?
If you are black and able to graduate from high school, you are IN, all expenses paid. ("Racism", you see....)

summer,
Are you certain that this article is legit?

Regards,
LH

[Marine Inspector]

Thanks for the link.

[Teacher317]

Actual example: two girls walked into my class 5 minutes late in mid-May. One girl gets a verbal warning, because she has never been late. The other girl was suspended for 3 days, because she had been through the list of consequences: Verbal warning, written warning, lunch detention, phone call home, after-school detention (3, actually), and a one-day suspension (these were for a variety of offenses, but mostly tardiness). This was unequal treatment for the same offense, but the two girls were punished according to the progression of consequences that is published (and signed by parent and student) in every student handbook.

[Marine Inspector]

Thanks for the link.

[LWalk18]

Thanks, summer- One point that was not addressed in that very bias article- what are the suspension rates at schools with black principals and faculty. I went to high school with a black principal and guess what- same disparity existed. It's not racism- it's behavior that begins early and is protected, if not encouraged by the parents (or parent). I can tell you of the number of teachers that I have had that are out of teaching...and I've been out of high school for only five years...because of the discipinary problems. Even the ones who attempted to be "down" with their students would be victimized...my young Calculus teacher was like that and she ended up getting her car stolen by one of the thugs in her other classes. I remember when our class would come in she would be in tears from the other (standard and lower) classes.

I can go on and on about my high school...the thug contingent was awful and disrupted teachers and real students. My mom worked as a substitute teacher and she can give you horror stories...and this was middle and elementary school!

[Marine Inspector]

See post #11.

[Crowcreek]

. . . school did not seek to have him arrested and booked on an assault charge, in light of the serious injuries he inflicted on the other student.

No kidding. My guess is that he had a ring, or bracelet of some sort. Eye cuts are kind of rare in a high school fistfight.

[summer]

Thank you for your thoughtful post #8, Imal. While I have very strong feelings about the matter described in the article, I'm still able to agree with you on your points here:

Real racial discrimination is still rampant in many forms. Here it is being used as a weapon by this kid's racist father, but there are many genuine victims of racial discrimination in the U.S.

Self-serving nonsense like this discredits and delegitimizes real racism complaints, and hurts all victims of racial discrimination.

[summer]

The damage that has occured by allowing thugs and apprentice criminals into the public school system is immeasuarable.

This is another reason I think education beyond 8th grade should be optional. If a "student" does not know what it means to be a student by that time, and prefers being a thug, fine. Get out of school so that more teachers will enter the system and schools will be safer for everyone. And, ONE strike like this fight - and you're OUT on your own.

[Contra]

A typical case of trying to get something for nothing, instead of working for it. A real good example for the kid. Obviously the acorn didn't fall far from the tree.

[neutrino]

The fact that the kid is still in school at all speaks volumes about why our schools don't teach. His behavior is a clear impediment to learning. Arguably, his very presence (given his attitude) is a detriment.

[summer]

Funny, they could just as easily have written an article about the white student being harassed and beaten and how having stitches interfered with his ability to learn. I guess "Learning while white" didn't have the same catchy PC title.

Yes, I was wondering about that kid, too. Where is the equivalent group of the NAACP to help that kid, to perhaps sue the kid who punched him out and gave him five stitches???

[Crowcreek]

Russell readily admits, after a bout of name-calling with a white classmate last fall, he threw the first punch

'Course we all know that the other guy is 'white' simply because he's not 'black'. I'd like to see his photo . . .

[summer]

Thank you for posting that link in your post #11.

[summer]

The dad should "encourage" his spawn to hit the books and not others.

Thank you for saying that! :)

[SaveTheChief]

For years black parents have quietly seethed about stories like Russell's. 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.

I used to teach at a large metropolitan high school. The Superintendent, an African-American man who had the respect of most everyone in the district, had convened an assembly of the high school student body one day to talk about discipline and the problems that plagued that particular building.

This is a man who demands attention when he walks into a room. Standing well over six feet tall, he is always well-dressed, and always prepared when he has a presentation to make.

I know a good part of the student body didn't expect what he was about to report. He had studied both the disciplinary and the academic statistics from the previous semester, and even had a PowerPoint presentation prepared. All the data pointed that a majority of the disciplinary problems in the school involved African-American students, and poor grades and academic performance were closely tied to the same students. At that time, Black students represented somewhere between 10 and 30 percent of the entire student body.

He did not make a big deal of it, other than point out the statistics, and the fact that statistics do not lie. He made it clear that certain students needed to straighten up. It was an interesting assembly, to say the least.