School Violence Caused By Racial Quotas In Disciplining Kids
Hans Bader, at Open Market, writes about the Obama administration's "recent pressure on school districts to adopt veiled racial quotas in school discipline discourages schools from imposing meaningful discipline on black students for misconduct that would lead to serious discipline if committed by a white student." He writes:
Since being taught to behave properly and follow rules is a necessary predicate for classroom learning as a child, and keeping a job as an adult, it is an educational "benefit" that cannot be denied minority students based on race, under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. ... It also violates white students' constitutional right not to be punished more than blacks for the same offense, as a Seventh Circuit ruling banning school discipline quotas illustrates, see People Who Care v. Rockford Board of Education, 111 F.3d 528, 534 (7th Cir. 1997).
Bader's detailed piece on this is at the link above.
He also links to Joanne Jacobs' blog, writing, "At a widely-read education blog, a teacher describes the violence and disorder that occurred when her school adopted racial quotas in school discipline":
I was the homeroom teacher in an incident in a school that tried to implement just this criteria for discipline. One kid (scrawny 7th grader) had the {bleep} beaten out of him by a 6-foot, fully-muscled 7th grader - two different races. The little kid was suspended before his copious blood had been cleaned up off the floor. The big kid never did have ANY punishment - that particular ethnic group had been disciplined too many times.Need I mention that it was a tough month, as word quickly spread that violence against the "under-disciplined" ethnic group was treated as a freebie?
Even if the administration had been able to suspend both kids, the response from the administration would be a week's suspension for both kids.
This would be in total disregard of the fact that the little kid had never been down to the principals office other than to drop off a doctor's note. Meanwhile the ethnic child had seen the principal ten times in the twelve weeks of the current school year.
The school system is so fucked. This is because there is no longer personal responsibility in the school system. That also follows society at large. If you have three children you have a personal responsibility to raise them including teaching them "This <activity> is not acceptable, especially in public."
Jim P. at August 26, 2012 11:02 PM
Just more feel good policy making from the social justice crowd. It's the kind of illogic that everyone should expect from these groups. Fortunately, at least from my own experiences, this kind of stupidity has not permeated schools on a wide basis. Even better, there is a way people can help it from becoming a more accepted practice; vote against a president who has this mindset.
TW at August 27, 2012 1:45 AM
The only reason our country hasn't exploded into racial violence is because the vast majority of white people are unaware of how racist and violent innner city black people can be. Usually because the media down plays all black violence against whites. Incidents like this raise awareness among whites, and increase racial tensions. It won't be long before some harrassed white kids gets fed up and start shooting black kids.
If we refuse to require certain minorities to be civilized, they will eventually be considered animals by the rest of us and there will be a reckoning. You put a mad dog down, you don't feed it juicy tid bits from your dinner and say,"Good boy, place nice!"
Assholio at August 27, 2012 7:27 AM
If we refuse to require certain minorities to be civilized, they will eventually be considered animals by the rest of us and there will be a reckoning.
This is already starting to happen. There is so much hate and racism that I see on certain blogs and forums lately. Especially those from large urban areas. It's coming, the revolution, and it's going to be messy. Very messy.
Flynne at August 27, 2012 7:44 AM
I still remember that our Principal, Sister Mary Florita, was able to figure out which of the two was to be punished without regard to race. Maybe God was helping her. She batted a 1000% knowing the guilty person that caused the fight.
Dave B at August 27, 2012 8:24 AM
another problem in this...
do these kids want to be in school anyway? I knew kids like this centuries ago when I was in high school... they were always expelled after a month or so, and then they were free to do whatever it is they had wanted. It usually landed them in jail by Nov. Saw one kid a few years later, full of tats. and menace. Heard he wound up dead a few years later. This was not a racial thing either.
Also, years ago when I was paying the bills as a school photographer, I took pics at two schools in the same Chicago suburb. One 95% African American 5% white/Latino, the other evenly split btw the three.
The 95% school was very strict and thus very nice to work at. The teachers, many of them alums, never let anyone get away with stuff.
The balanced school... wasn't. The amount of crime and such was breathtaking. And that was 20 years ago. The faculty was also well balanced, and yet completely ineffectual.
You get more of what you reward... or fail to punish. And sometimes there is no good answer.
SwissArmyD at August 27, 2012 8:52 AM
We need a comprehensive explanation of just how it is that education policy makers include so many of the truly stupid among us, from top to bottom. What is it in education that permits stupid to rise to the top so reliably, when that is not so frequently the case in other professions?
Walt at August 27, 2012 4:53 PM
My ex-GF was studying and has become a teacher. She I a smart person who decided this was her dream. I met up with some of her students at an FBLA type competition. They knew their shit.
The organizers of the competition couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery. They struggled with everything.
Add in that while she was taking her courses she did a paper that essentially said gifted students needed almost as much care and feeding as special needs students. The only reason that the professor didn't reject it out of hand is he couldn't refute her cites and conclusion. Still didn't stop her from not getting a 3.8.
She did her best not to denigrate her classmates, but I know she is in a living hell that if it wasn't for her students -- she would consider going back to computer programming as a career.
Jim P. at August 27, 2012 6:36 PM
Oh Jim, I feel that. When I got my EdM at a University, that, ironically, IS a school for the gifted there were no classes on teaching gifted kids. Because there ARE no gifted kids. Everyone is gifted!
The closest I got was a class on differentiated learning where they reluctantly let me use gifted kids as my special needs example. Finding resources to help me with research for the class was not easy! I got no support or help from faculty or TAs on this project, it was very difficult. since then I've done more research and found the resources I would have needed, but it wasn't easy.
NicoleK at August 28, 2012 8:00 AM
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