Black Students More Likely to be Punished for Same Infractions as White Students

Friday, October 07, 2011
North Carolina’s school system has had a habit of punishing black students more often than white students who commit the same offenses.
 
A study released by the National Education Policy Center, a non-partisan source of peer-reviewed research, claimed 32% of black students in North Carolina were given out-of-school suspension for using a cell phone at school.
 
Less than 15% of white students received the same punishment for breaking the same rule.
 
When it came to a first-time offense of public display of affection, about 43% of black students were suspended. White students? Again, about 15%.
 
A similar disparity was uncovered in Texas schools by The Council of State Governments, whose study concluded that black students were 31% more likely to be targeted for discipline than other students.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
Discipline Policies, Successful Schools, and Racial Justice (by Daniel J. Losen, National Education Policy Center) (pdf)

Comments

Gabriella 12 years ago
this is the school to prison pipeline affecting at-risk minority youth in the us. it's not only a pattern coming out of north carolina--it's a national problem affecting tens of thousands of youth. "they lock us out of schools, and lock us in jails."

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