UNDERNEWS: Blacks students suspended more frequently

July 31, 2015

Blacks students suspended more frequently

Huffington Post - [A] study, conducted by Pennsylvania State University assistant professor of sociology and criminology David Ramey, analyzed the rates of suspensions, expulsions and police referrals at 59,000 schools across the country. Ramey found that schools with larger populations of black students also had higher rates of suspensions, while schools with more white students had a greater number of kids in programs designed for students with special needs.

1 comment:

LarryC said...: Any idea where one might acquire a copy of this study? This little blurb is meaningless. It suggests there is disparity...maybe...not even clear about that since there are two issues here; but it doesn't provide one bit of data to support the statement. Where is the report. I can't find the author on Facebook...just a link to his university web site that doesn't tell me anything about his work.

What I did find on the Huffington Post article is, if I understand from the scant information, the author is asserting Blacks are suspended at higher rates while Whites are placed in programs such as Section 504 under IDEA where they get medical and mental health screening and help. He goes on to say "many black families are skeptical of medical and mental health research because of the Tuskegee experiment." Based on this scant information I'd like to know what the author proposes? If Blacks do not want to avail themselves of services offered to all students, but Whites take advantage of the services, then what is the solution? You can't mandate a person receive mental health assessment and treatment unless they are presenting a risk that requires legal intervention and often that becomes incarceration. That opportunity went away when mental health hospitals fell from favor with the feds, no longer received funding because they discriminated, and most were closed. So whats left if Black parents don't want the help available? If the authors data is correct, the problem isn't going to go away.; July 31, 2015 at 7:04 AM

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