Posted on 06/04/2013 5:13:47 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
Compelled by the U.S. Justice Department, a Mississippi school district has agreed to keep more misbehaving students in the classroom instead of suspending them, expelling them, or letting the police deal with them.
The goal of the consent decree approved by a federal court on Thursday is to "prevent and address racial discrimination in student discipline," and to keep black students out of the so-called school-to-prison pipeline.
Among other items, the Meridian, Miss., Public School District has agreed to "limit discipline that removes students from classrooms." That includes suspensions, expulsions and "exclusionary consequences for minor misbehavior."
Instead of kicking unruly kids out of class, the school district will expand the use of "positive behavior intervention," which sets clear expectations of students, acknowledges positive behavior, and uses misbehavior as an opportunity for re-teaching instead of punishment.
As part of the consent decree, no longer will police be called to Meridan schools when a student's misbehavior can be "safely and appropriately handled" by school officials.
“The consent decree approved by the court today (Thursday) will propel meaningful reform in Meridian schools and serve as a blueprint for school districts across the country,” said Jocelyn Samuels, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. “We commend the Meridian Public School District for its commitment to keeping its students in safe and inclusive classrooms, and out of the school-to-prison pipeline.”
As part of the plan, school law enforcement officers will be trained in "bias-free policing," child and adolescent dvelopment, and "age-approopriate responses."
For students who are sent to alternative schools, there must now be clear entry and exit criteria -- and support for students when they move back to their regular schools.
Due process protections will be enhanced for students at school disciipline hearings, and the school system's discipline data will be monitored to "identify and respond to racial disparities."
And finally, families and communities will be engaged as "partners" in revising school policies.
The consent decree amends a longstanding federal school desegregation decree enforced by the United States, which prohibits the school district from discriminating against students based on race.
“This consent decree is a major stride toward equal justice and equal opportunity for all students in Meridian,” said Gregory K. Davis, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. “The court’s order is a powerful reminder to schools that they may not discriminate against students on the basis of race or another protected status in administering discipline.”
In an April 2012 speech, Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, mentioned the case in Meridian, saying students were allegedly arrested for violations of the school dress code or for talking back in class:
"I had an opportunity to visit Meridian and listen first hand to students," Perez told a gathering of attorneys in Boston. "They told me of being escorted from school for crying while being paddled. They told me of serving time in in-school suspension for wearing the wrong color socks. I listened to a panel of eight students, roughly half of whom were wearing ankle bracelets. Our investigation remains ongoing and we have made no final judgments, but the hopelessness and desperation conveyed by those students was palpable."
Perez -- recently nominated to be President Obama's Labor Secretary -- called it regrettable that "students of color are receiving different and harsher disciplinary punishments than whites for the same or similar infractions, and they are disproportionately impacted by zero-tolerance policies -– a fact that only serves to exacerbate already deeply entrenched disparities in many communities."
And, of course, he took what the kids told him at face value.
Mississippi ping
In a classroom of 30-40, it takes only one misbehaving student to prevent any learning whatsoever from going on.
Mm-hmm. It starts with “Jerome, you’re not in uniform.” And Jeromes argues and yells obsceneties until you kick him out. When asked why he was kicked out, Jerome then says it was because he wasn’t in uniform.
I'm not sure that letting black kids get away with unacceptable behavior is a positive step toward keeping them out of the school-to-prison pipeline. There is another option that would work well, but it requires parenting of those kids and a conscious choice to behave in a civilized manner and to accept responsibility for their own decisions and actions. My idea probably wouldn't work because racists on the other side would not permit an attempt.
Wanna bet the schools see an increase in problems within the classrooms?
It will be up to the teachers to maintain discipline — and they probably have little to no authority to act.
But, hey, fewer black kids will be kicked out of classes.
“In a classroom of 30-40, it takes only one misbehaving student to prevent any learning whatsoever from going on.”
That is what happens in the welfare reservation schools in Newark NJ; that is why there is so much competition (and demand) for charter schools.
Punish the well behaved.
Racists.
And the government gets that authority to create protected classes from....where, exactly?
Blackboard Jungle? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047885/
To paraphrase Dan Quayle: “Been there, done that”, and I won’t work, will never work.
New Jack City: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102526/
The soft discrimination of low expectations...a trademark of the Rat Party.
I thought I read an article here last week that said that the “schools” were going to start encouraging the little turds to misbehave.
Even if this is considered as race-blindness which in theory is covered by the Constitution as amended, it is being measured in the wrong way — equality of outcome rather than of treatment of each individual problem student. This is saying that even if the blacks misbehave worse you can’t crack down on it worse. If we are so allergic to paddling today, then make them do something requiring effort at the school (wash floors, whatever), but this idea of giving them a day off from school when they misbehave is just begging them to misbehave.
It’s all about Fed matching funds.
The schools and unions really hate to miss out on the cash flow.
I started school in 1946 and from then until 1966 when I graduated from college (with a three-year interval when I was in the Army) I never went to school with anyone of color.
Neither did I get beat up by a gang nor called a “mother-f-—er” or other choice expletives of those people.
Some people are just plain lucky.
Which puts them in the school to prison pipeline.
Face it. Liberals hate blacks so much they will abort every black they can get their claws on, destroy their morality and character through the welfare state system and put those who survive into prisons - all so the liberals do not have to see or live with them.
Liberals certainly seem to be down in the spiritual hog wallow with much of black America.
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