Too Many Black Students Suspended Leads Oakland Schools to Stop Punishment

truthrevolt ^ | 5.15.2015 | Trey Sanchez 294

[dennisw]

Board members of California's Oakland Unified School District unanimously voted on Wednesday to cease suspending students for what they call "willful defiance." Those behaviors can include swearing/yelling at teachers, refusing direct orders, texting, and storming out of class, to name a few.

The reason? Concern that too many black students are being suspended for willful defiance.

One sophomore student, Dan'enicole Williams, told the San Francisco Gate, "They never take time out, if someone is sleeping in class, to ask what’s wrong. They may be acting that way because they didn’t eat the night before.”

"We’re getting pushed out of schools,” she added. “They don’t care about us.”

Along with suspensions, the new policy will also include bans on expulsions and transfers of students to other schools for multiple infractions.

According to the SFGate, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights has been investigating Oakland schools' "disproportionate suspensions" for several years. The district signed a voluntary agreement in 2012 that brought in Manhood Development classes for black males to address behavior issues and to begin discussions on "restorative justice." These programs, dubbed "alternative discipline," can cost districts upwards of $2.3 million dollars per school year.

Vowing to cover those costs in his 2015-2016 budget, Superintendent Antwan Wilson said, “This is about reintegrating students into the classroom rather than excluding them from learning."

[Kenny Bunk]

And why do you think the idea (school disciplinary Counselors) went nowhere?

Remarkably, the idea came out of a think tank that was definitely pinkolefty. However, I suppose more hardened ideologues prevailed and killed the concept because it would have been "counter-revolutionary."

BTW, the CPUSA got absolutely nowhere with the Negroes, whom they had long fantasized as proletarian shock troops, until they allied with the Democrats in the 1930s and figured out that they could "buy" them. The Black Republican majority of the 1920's and early 30s went the way of the dodo with Roosevelt. Now, 4 generations later the Marxists have their revolutionary street fighters.

[gogeo]

Are you a teacher?

If so, you might have some tips about how to teach without order.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

There is a minor (should be major) issue in the Houston ISD right now with proof that several teachers were ordered to give failing students a B in classes. One long term substitute became a whistle blower and I was pleased to see one parent angry that her child might have been given a free grade without actually learning the material. She had the right attitude - it doesn’t help them at all to be given a passing grade. Another school was caught having kids do janitorial work to excuse too many absences.....unreal.