Posted on 08/09/2012 6:31:00 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a federal complaint against the Okaloosa County School District, alleging disciplinary discrimination toward black students.
The 22-page document asserts that in the 2010-11 school year, black students accounted for about 47 percent of all in- and out-of-school suspensions, although they made up only 12 percent of the school district’s population.
The civil rights organization filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after more than a year of investigation.
“It started with complaints that we received from parents in the Panhandle. We were just hearing all these stories and we were like, ‘What? Not in this day and age,’ ” said Stephanie Langer, the staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Florida office. “We were surprised and shocked with what we found.”
After studying school districts across the state, the organization decided to file complaints against the Okaloosa, Bay, Escambia, Flagler and Suwannee County school districts. The first complaint was filed in February and concluded last month with accusations filed against Okaloosa County.
Investigations have been launched in Escambia and Suwannee counties based on the complaint, Langer said.
“I think we have enough evidence to file in all 67 districts in Florida,” she said. “What we found were these five counties were very representative of what was happening in the state.”
Okaloosa’s complaint specifically cites experiences of four students who are identified by only their initials and ages. Two attended Riverside Elementary School in Crestview and one attended Fort Walton Beach High School. The fourth attended Okaloosa Academy Charter School in Fort Walton Beach, which is overseen by the Rader Group.
Okaloosa’s complaint also criticized the school district’s site-based management program, which leaves most discipline issues in the hands of principals. Only expulsions are handled at the district level.
The trouble with that practice and the district’s overall discipline approach, Langer said, is that schools are punishing students for misdemeanor offenses the same way they do violent ones.
“We think it’s a problem with schools criminalizing kids for being kids,” she said.
Superintendent of Schools Alexis Tibbetts said her staff received the complaint Monday and had only just begun investigating the allegations.
“It’s safe to say we’re reviewing the data to see if it’s valid or not,” Tibbetts said.
Tibbetts was able to confirm that the district did have a 12 percent population of black students in 2010-11, but couldn’t confirm the other numbers.
She said the percentages could change based on the number of times a single behavioral incident was reported.
Tibbetts also defended the district’s site-based management program. She said it was truly the best option not only because of staffing shortages at the district level, but because principals can keep up with individual student discipline issues more easily.
She did emphasize that similar policies were in place at each school.
“We have a consistent expectation for behavior in our school district, and that is regardless of the color of your skin or gender or any other attribute,” she said.
Tibbetts said no one with the federal education department had contacted her as of Tuesday afternoon.
Read more: http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/school-51533-students-black.html#ixzz236PfWSxv
Quotas.
Yes, quotas. My apologies - was still feeling bad for having typed a profanity so did not proof properly.
Particularly scary because this is unknown to just about everybody. The SPLC works on some perfectly innocuous things, such as clearing title to rural black properties in the South. These things literally go back to 40 acres and a mule, but since blacks were not generally in the normal legal network (buying, selling and registering properties) and also often didn’t marry and have legal heirs, nor did they write wills, when whoever is living on the property now goes to sell it...they can’t. So this is a worthwhile project.
But most of their money comes from huge shadowy donations and contracts...such as the one they have with the FBI to identify and monitor “hate groups.”
You're right, the above is worthwhile...my concern was their 'vast right wing conspiracy' stuff from the Clinton years. Was that nuts or what? Decoder rings - black helicopters... nutty stuff.
Huh... It seems there have been a lot more of these 1962-era stories about “discrimination” lately. I think the malcontents and race hustlers are smelling the end of the Ubanga regime and want to get in on as much action as possible before the accidental turd is flushed down the toilet of history in November.
Of course, a lot of this stuff is simply part of Ubanga’s campaign strategy to instigate the Democrat party “base”.
Are you aware that Obama recently signed an executive order to force schools to discipline equally blacks, whites and other minorities based on their percentages in the school population. So some kids will get suspended for chewing gum and other kids will not be disciplined for much more serious infractions. I don’t remember the details but it was posted here on FR.
“Are you aware that Obama recently signed an executive order to force schools to discipline equally blacks, whites and other minorities based on their percentages in the school population”
Yah, yet another reason why I say sending your child to public school is child abuse.
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