Black Students Face More Discipline In Schools, But Why?

The NYTimes is reporting on disparities in discipline levels (here) in US Education, across race, from soon to be available data (here).

On the surface, this article sounds a familiar alarm on unfair treatment of young people of color, but the presentation leaves me to wonder what the authors are really saying, versus what the data is actually saying, or not.

The title and language speak of results, whereby black and Latino kids receive more and harsher discipline than white and Asian kids, presumably. What is not presented is data on whether black and/or Latino infractions are also more serious, or not. The reader is left to assume that the black kids are punished differently for the same level and type of offense, but with no real way of knowing. Data on punishment following perceptions, rather than measured seriousness of offense, could be significantly misleading.

Two years ago, my son was assaulted by another black student at his high school, and the assailant was permanently expelled under a zero-tolerance school policy. The guardian of the boy thought the punishment was harsh, without consideration that zero-tolerance for breaking the law means ZERO! Because of my own experience, including the involvement of the local police in investigating and charging the young assailant, I am not so quick to assume that we are talking apples-to-apples in behavior data leading to disparities in discipline.

James C. Collier

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