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not taking advantage of a 'teachable moment"

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with eDrake

Feds' New School-Discipline Guidelines Aim to Keep Kids in Classroom

Recommendations seek to curb racial prejudice and stop excessive discipline for minor offenses.

Posted by Corey Fyke (Editor) , January 13, 2014 at 04:50 PM

New federal guidelines aimed at reducing school suspensions for minor offenses that disproportionately affect minorities were unveiled last week by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder.

According to the Washington Post, Duncan told a crowd at Baltimore’s Frederick Douglass High School that racial discrimination in school discipline is “a real problem today — it’s not just an issue from 30 or 40 or 50 years ago.”

Duncan, in a press release on the U.S. Department of Education website, said the new guidelines would help states, districts and schools enhance the climate for learning.

"Effective teaching and learning cannot take place unless students feel safe at school,"U.S. Duncan said. "Positive discipline policies can help create safer learning environments without relying heavily on suspensions and expulsions. Schools also must understand their civil rights obligations and avoid unfair disciplinary practices. We need to keep students in class where they can learn. These resources are a step in the right direction.”

Tough discipline policies lead schools to expel or suspend about 2 million students a year, Duncan and Holder said. Up to 95 percent of out-of-school suspensions nationally are for nonviolent offenses such as disrupting class, disrespect, tardiness and dress-code violations. Taking a student out of the classroom should be a “last resort,” Duncan said.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy supports the new guidelines.

"This is a big step toward solving a big problem," Murphy said in a release. "Exclusionary discipline like suspensions and expulsions rarely works — in fact, it often makes schools less safe and puts kids in a downward spiral that many times ends in the criminal justice system."

Many educators and advocates applauded the new guidelines.

“This is historic,” said Judith Browne Dianis, codirector of the Advancement Project, a civil rights organization, told the Washington Post. “Disparities in school discipline have been documented since the 1970s, and we’ve never been able to get the federal government to step in and help stop it.”

 

Imagine the stress the students and teachers that go to school to learn and teach are under sharing space with disruptive and potentially dangerous or threatening kids who don't care about education nor do they respect the institution or a teacher's authority. I believe that treating people differently is wrong I believe that dealing with behavior is what should be the rule and the law. I believe there is a hierarchy of crime, wrong doing and evil and that the act is with what should dealt and skin color and ethnicity should not play a part in discipline. Equal application of rules, laws and expectations should be the goal. This administration has created more divide between the races when they have had the best opportunity to do the most good but that takes understanding and the ability to take advantage of a 'teachable moment."

Comments (10)

Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate
Fred Griffin Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker

     "Zero Tolerance" and other imbecilic ideas are behind many suspensions.  A kid points his finger like a gun; they throw him out of school. A child hugs a classmate, they charge him with sexual harassment.

Jan 14, 2014 03:04 AM
Than Maynard
Coldwell Banker Heart of Oklahoma - Purcell, OK
Broker - Licensed to List & Sell - 405-990-8862

I wanted to blog on this, but I stopped myself. I was afraid I would turn it into a complete rant. You have to read the fine print. This isn't about the gun pointing finger or a kid hugging another kid.

Basically: If more minorities are punished more than non-minorities (whites) the policy is RACCIISSSTTT!

Tardy a lot? If more minorities are tardy then you can't do anything. Back-talking? Same thing. Fights, threats, disruptive....can't punish them if it "dis-proportionally effects minorities".

The fact they are guilty no longer matters. Quota system gone insane!

Jan 14, 2014 04:41 AM
Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate
Fred Griffin Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker

Hi again, Edward.   I read it again and see the point.  This is about quotas and racial favoritism.

Jan 14, 2014 05:45 AM
Mike Frazier
Carousel Realty of Dyer County - Dyersburg, TN
Northwest Tennessee Realtor

Edward, I am not against fair play but when they use politics to impose their own agenda on us then I object.

Jan 14, 2014 06:14 AM
Edward Peterson
eDrake - Hamden, CT
eDrake; CT

I also believe there the term and level of crime categorized as "hate crime" should be gone, I think it perpetuates racial divide. Crime is clearly enumerated in our Constitution and in out state, county and city laws. Some intelligentsia decided that if a crime is committed between the races, cultures or religions it is more heinous than the identical crime committed against just an ordinary human being - what hubris to claim to be able to read into the hearts and minds of another. The result of a crime committed does not change because someone wants everyone to just get along better. Being wronged by a white, Dutch guy rather than a black, native American or any other ethnic group of which I have no lineage will not make me less angry and it should not make society more or less angry. 

Jan 14, 2014 06:57 AM
Than Maynard
Coldwell Banker Heart of Oklahoma - Purcell, OK
Broker - Licensed to List & Sell - 405-990-8862

Most crimes involve some sort of hatred. I have always disliked the 'special treatment' that is doled out.

You almost never see a hate crime filed against a minority, but you hear plenty of '5 minorities attacked a non-miniority'. Why isn't that considered a hate crime? Because it doesn't fit the special interests and would make it harder for minorities to be portrayed as victims.

Jan 14, 2014 08:28 PM
Karl Hess
Keller Williams Shore Properties - Barnegat, NJ
on The Jersey Shore

There are some districts in NJ that have "in-school" suspensions. The unruly students are put into a single classroom where they spend the entire day. They are given the course work that would usually be covered in thier different classes. This keeps the kids in school and removes them from the 'normal' classroom environment where they may be a distraction...and they don't get 'rewarded' by being 'excused' from going to school. Oh, and the kids absolutely hate it...a good thing.

Jan 15, 2014 12:00 AM
Karl Hess
Keller Williams Shore Properties - Barnegat, NJ
on The Jersey Shore

The FBI says: A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, Congress has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.” Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties.

Jan 15, 2014 12:08 AM
Rob Arnold
Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc. - Altamonte Springs, FL
Metro Orlando Full Service - Investor Friendly & F

I think there are a ton of kids with little to no discipline or family structure in their home.  It might be good to give some sort of alternative schooling, an option, for these troubled students.  Something similar to a military type school where no nonsense is allowed. 

Jan 15, 2014 02:04 AM
Edward Peterson
eDrake - Hamden, CT
eDrake; CT

Karl, I do agree that taking a disruptive student out of the classroom is essential. I also think that adding an interpretative layer of racial bias is uneven and creates a societal divide. Crime is crime and the hierarchy delineating crime severity previously established was even-handed. I think that prejudice is seldom perceived to flow in all directions - when one thinks of prejudicial behavior I believe that the majority of people think white acting against black. Adding language like "hate crime" only fuels the fire of divide.

Rob I also believe that exclusive of genetic maladies - everything flows from home. I believe that school is secondary to the parents/family. Respect, patience and manners if not taught at home it mostly does not get learned. The problem is that the family has broken down in this country and it is not an economic problem it is a self-respect problem.

Jan 15, 2014 03:52 AM