Teachers Criticize Measures Created To Stop Biased Student Punishment

President Obama visits with Black boys
Brooke Brown
December 9, 2019

All too often, Black children are met with hostile treatment for minor classroom disturbances. 

According to a New York Times analysis of a recent Department of Education report, Black students are suspended at rates 5X GREATER than their representation in the student population. In an attempt to disrupt how schools overpoliced Black students, a warning was issued - and it came straight from the government.

Obama-era federal mandates threatened school districts with legal action if they continued this alarming trend of discrimination.

Clearly, the bigger picture focuses on protecting Black children, but many teachers sneered at this idea by DOUBLING DOWN on their prejudice!

They insist that instructors having the ultimate say in how students are punished is best for children who behave “acceptably” and seem eager to learn (according to the teachers’ standards). 

Besides their implied, appalling assumption that disruptive children are both most likely to be Black AND disinterested in learning, the data doesn’t prove their argument valid at all.

What studies HAVE proven is that Black children are at greatest risk of being the target - whether overtly or subconsciously - of excessive discipline policies. 

Snatching them out of school instead of addressing the causes of their challenges will hurt their academic progress. It’s troubling enough to be addressed on numerous fronts - but of course white teachers don’t want to hear the truth.

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