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No one is saying Kenneth Russell is an angel. The 16-year-old high school junior from Salida, Calif., is a C student with a filthy mouth who has been known to saunter into class on his own schedule. And, yes, as Russell readily admits, after a bout of name-calling with a white classmate last fall, he threw the first punch in a fistfight that left him battered and his adversary with five stitches over his left eye. But is Russell actually a victim? The N.A.A.C.P. and some of his teachers think so. His father John has filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, charging that Kenneth was unjustly punished for the fight.

What makes the NAACP, Kenneth Russell and so many others think that black youths are exempt from being disciplined for wrong-doing? I hear time and time again that blacks are singled out more often than whites for discipline.

Of all many professors and researchers and civil rights "professionals" and talking heads on television, not a single one has been able to look at America and tell the truth. That the vast majority of those who are being disciplined -- both in school settings, and in the judicial system -- are there because of choices and actions made by the person who is being punished.

Am I missing something here? This article actually was written to justify the actions of this roguish 16-year-old?

Kenneth's father, John, needs to have his head examined. If his father is wrong-headed enough to attempt to sue the school over the disciplining of his rowdy teenager, when it has been shown that his son started the fight - especially in this day of "zero tolerance" within the school environment - you should not be surprised when this teen gets in trouble as an adult, and blames "the man" for his transgressions.

And for a venerable and respected (and supposedly unbiased) newsmagazine like Time to buy into the crybaby defense offered by the NAACP and this boy's father provides further proof of the "liberal bias" of America's media, contrary to those journalists who insist that the profession is unbiased and uninfluenced by one side of the aisle or the other.

If John Russell were truly concerned about his son's future, he would have disciplined the boy himself when confronted with Kenneth's foul mouth. With the kind of language that Kenneth uses at school, John certainly has to know that Kenneth regularly uses profanity. John has to have been made aware of Kenneth's issues with attending class on time. And rather than address Kenneth's casual use of violence in the academic setting, John chooses to focus on how his son is punished.

It seems to me that John is no better than Kenneth in that regard. In John's eyes, it's OK to be violent. It's OK to use profanity in school. It's OK to be a mediocre student that "saunters into class on his own schedule."

As opposed to emphasizing excellence from black youth, this is yet another case where the NAACP would much rather enable substandard performance from students and their parents. I would imagine that the NAACP will be right there, blaming the school and the "system" when Kenneth, due to his sorry performance in high school, is unable to realize his dream of going to college to become an architect. And while the NAACP will reap much in the way of donations on the Kenneth's back, but they won't be there to help Kenneth when he is unable to move forward in life.

"I lost out on a month of my high school life," Kenneth complained when interviewed by Time's Jodie Morse. Well, Kenneth, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you are a disrespectful, foul-mouthed teenager. I'm sorry that you don't have a modicum of respect for the institution of education. I'm sorry that you have a demonstrated propensity to be violent. I'm sorry that you are not able to shoulder responsibility for your own actions. I'm sorry that you have a father who enables your shortcomings and failures in life. But most of all, I'm sorry that, thanks to your father and the NAACP, you will become yet another sad, sorry statistic in America.

Thank you so much for your very thoughtful post, above, mhking.

And, speaking of sorry statistics in America, here are two more (one I already posted, but the other one is what makes both pathetic):

Roxbury teacher breaks up fight, gets indicted

Palatka teacher, aide accused of allowing student melee [yet, teacher risks punishment either way]

As opposed to emphasizing excellence from black youth, this is yet another case where the NAACP would much rather enable substandard performance from students and their parents.

I've been seeing this sort of thing from the NAACP for 30 years, and I've yet to understand it. I suppose Booker T. Washington is still "right on":

"There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the negro race before the public. Some of these people do not want the negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well."
- Booker T. Washington
1911