What a mystery!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636194)

The plea weighs heavily at Justice Page, where African-American students are 338 percent more likely to be suspended than their white peers. “It’s painful sometimes, but I have to say, ‘Yes, that’s probably true,” Ms. Rathke said.

It is a reality that district leaders here have been grappling with for years: The Minneapolis school district suspends an inordinate number of black students compared with white ones, and it is struggling to figure out why. Last year, districtwide, black students were 41 percent of the overall student population, but made up 76 percent of the suspensions.

Numbers like that prompted the Obama administration in 2014 to draft tough new policies to try to address racial disparities in school discipline across the country. Now, the Trump administration is trying to reverse those policies — in part, administration officials say, as a response to school shootings like the massacre last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

The Obama-era policies — and the Trump-era reversals — have divided educators in the Twin Cities. In recent months, educators from Minneapolis, St. Paul and suburban Minnesota traveled to Washington to lobby the Education Department in support of reversing the 2014 guidelines, which encouraged school districts to review racial disparities in student discipline rates to ensure against violations of federal civil rights laws. Those that do not comply can face federal investigation or a loss of funding.

Then another group followed them to lobby for keeping the guidance.

A retired Minnesota teacher set off a conservative media blitz by linking the Obama-era guidance to frustrations that teachers have with violent students, raising the issue high enough for the White House to latch on after the Parkland massacre. The coverage prompted Republicans to speculate about whether relaxed disciplinary policies had allowed the violent track record of Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged in the shooting, to evade law enforcement.

Debbie York, the teacher who raised the issue in a Breitbart News article, was forced to retire after a first grader in her suburban Minnesota school pushed her, injuring her back and neck. The school district said she had violated privacy laws by speaking out about the incident.

The story inspired a Minnesota bill bolstering teachers’ authority to remove threatening students from their classrooms. Ms. York is advocating that the law go national, and that the Obama guidance be repealed.

“It’s not about arming teachers with guns; it is about arming them with the freedom to talk about troubled kids whose behavior not only needs to be assessed, but when the behavior puts others at risk of serious harm, intervention other than therapy,” Ms. York said.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who has been eyeing the guidance for reversal since she took office, will head a White House commission on school safety that has been specifically tasked with examining whether to repeal the discipline guidance.

Civil rights groups and congressional Democrats are standing by the guidance and pointing to evidence that suspensions are helping to drive the achievement gap between white and minority students. Suspensions and expulsions are also linked to the disproportionate numbers of minority students in the criminal justice system.

In a letter to Ms. DeVos, Representative Robert C. Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House Education Committee, said that her office was aware of a coming report from the Government Accountability Office that would “very likely substantiate claims” of a persistent inequality in the “treatments of students of color and students with disabilities.”

“Ensuring public access to the G.A.O. findings prior to any agency action on the guidance is especially necessary given the recent factually inaccurate assertions that wrongly place blame for the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, on the 2014 guidance,” Mr. Scott wrote.

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Posters dealing with feelings, learning, and empathy hang in a second grade classroom. CreditTim Gruber for The New York Times

But in Minneapolis, as in districts across the nation, discipline policies are more than a political flash point. They are a daily struggle to balance safety and statistics, and the uncomfortable truths about how race may be clouding educators’ perception of both.

“We’re in a pressure cooker,” said Michael Thomas, the district’s chief of schools. “And what’s happening in Minneapolis is a microcosm of what’s happening across America.”

While critics of the Obama-era discipline changes argue that disparities cannot be explained away by racism, education leaders here say it is the natural place to start.

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Bernadeia Johnson, a former Minneapolis schools superintendent, launched her own review of discipline referrals for kindergarten boys after the federal government began investigating her district. The review was revealing, she said. The descriptions of white children by teachers included “gifted but can’t use his words” and “high strung,” with their actions excused because they “had a hard day.”

Black children, she said, were “destructive” and “violent,” and “cannot be managed.”

“When you see something like that and you’re a leader, and you’re trying to figure out how to move the school system forward — it was alarming,” Ms. Johnson said.

Nationally, black students are suspended three times as often as their white peers; in Minnesota, it is eight times as often. To explain this trend, officials here point to the rapid increase in the state’s minority population in the last decade, and the fact that the state has the largest poverty gap between blacks and whites in the nation.

Last month, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights notified 43 school districts and charter schools that suspension rates for nonviolent offenses still suggested widespread discriminatory practices.

“We’re at a tipping point, and that’s what you see in the schools” said Kevin Lindsey, the state’s human rights commissioner.

The school district is trying to engage students and educators in conversations, which they hope will help the situation.

“Our students for years have been publicly expressing that they want to be seen differently, be judged equitably,” Mr. Thomas said. “We’re still adjusting our listening frequency.”

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But some teachers say that the approach has undermined their profession and set students up for failure. One case that has received particular attention is a student’s violent assault in 2016 of his teacher, John Ekblad. Last year, Mr. Ekblad was part of a Minnesota contingent of teachers who met with Trump administration officials to discuss Obama-era disciplinary policies.

Simon Whitehead, a former physical education teacher at Southwest High School in Minneapolis, said he had watched the district’s discipline policy changes play out in his classes. Name-calling escalated to shoving, and then physical assaults. Profanity was redefined as “cultural dialect,” he said.

“It threw the school into complete chaos,” he said. “The kids knew they weren’t going to go home.”

Mr. Whitehead said he learned not to call his students out in front of their peers. He did not use the word “detention,” but rather “quality time.” Eventually, he would just “sweep a lot under the rug.”

The discipline model that he said had worked for him for 25 years — a warning, then a consequence — was no longer recognized by his bosses. He retired last year, labeled a racist.

“We do need to train teachers, especially white teachers, on how to interact with our African-American students,” he said. “But not expecting the same things from them is actually disrespectful. That would actually be racist.”

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Leann Walker, an art teacher, helps a first grader with an art project at Lyndale Community School.CreditTim Gruber for The New York Times

The root of those changes was in the district’s 2014 settlement agreement with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which had conducted a yearlong investigation into its discipline practices.

Federal investigators found that a black second-grade student was suspended for one day for poking another student with a pencil, but a white second grader who threw a rock that hit another student and broke a teacher’s sunglasses was not. The white student was allowed to work off the cost of the sunglasses by helping the teacher at lunch for several days.

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Ms. Johnson ordered several policy changes amid the 2014 settlement, including a moratorium on suspensions for students in pre-K through first grade for nonviolent offenses, and she pledged to personally review referrals to suspend minority students for nonviolent offenses.

The policy changes prompted a backlash both locally and nationally. In a letter, Peter Kirsanow, a Republican commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights, called the move “legally and constitutionally suspect.” He said her goal of closing the discipline gap between black and white students by 2018 was “introducing a racial quota system for school discipline.”

One month after the changes were announced, Ms. Johnson resigned.

“When people have kids around them that don’t look like them, they want them controlled,” she said.

The district’s agreement with the Education Department is still active, and it requires the district to continually review its discipline data and policies.

There are bright spots.

At Lyndale Community School, which has almost equal percentages of minority and white students, discipline is a “loaded term,” said the principal, Mark Stauduhar. He said his data — there were two suspensions in the school of more than 500 last year — showed that the school was a “healthy place” that emphasized positive reinforcement.

When it comes to misbehavior, “the conversations are about a mistake that a child made, not something that’s wrong with them,” he said. Most important, he added, his staff members are all on the same page. “If students are demonstrating behaviors that are not aligned with our policy, it’s our job to figure out why.”

But, in the district as a whole, after four years, and three superintendents, it has made meager progress. Suspensions have fallen, but racial disparities persist. Black students remain three times as likely to be suspended.

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Justice Page is one of the schools contributing to that gap, and Ms. Rathke and her team are working to change course.

Fresh murals on the school walls depict students from different ethnic groups linking arms, a nod to the demographic shift that the school underwent three years ago when the district completed a merger of three racially and socioeconomically different schools.

The school adopted a new curriculum this year that Ms. Rathke said had required teachers to reflect on how they were adjusting to a more diverse student body.

“I think we have to challenge our own biases every day,” she said. “Some teachers aren’t ready; some teachers need more time. But I just tell them that we’re not going to give up on students, and I’m not going to give up on them.”

There are signs of hope. Students successfully campaigned last year to rename the school for the state’s first black Supreme Court justice, Alan Page. It had previously been named for Alexander Ramsey, Minnesota’s first governor, who advocated genocide against Indian tribes.

“We are more than these numbers,” Ms. Rathke said. “But they’re telling us something: We have students that we just haven’t figured out how to support yet.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636201)

>When it comes to misbehavior, “the conversations are about a mistake that a child made, not something that’s wrong with them,” he said. Most important, he added, his staff members are all on the same page. “If students are demonstrating behaviors that are not aligned with our policy, it’s our job to figure out why.”

http://public-schools.startclass.com/l/49277/Lyndale-Elementary-in-Minneapolis-Minnesota

Both of the suspended kids were black. There's also the expected racial disparities in everything else (e.g. 12% of black students are chronically absent vs 6% of whites).

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636357)

LMAO

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636282)

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/04/04/former-teacher-speaks-out-about-school-violence/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636367)

My back

My first-grade classroom attack

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636437)

Wholly shit

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#36512841)

wtf lol this is how the article ends. oh what a sign of hope.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636330)

"The school board approved the name change in time for the last day of school in June.

“We’re just bringing in what we didn’t have before but what should have been there,” said seventh-grader ((((Lillian Richman)))), who was involved in the school’s renaming effort last year."

http://m.startribune.com/former-justice-vikings-star-honored-by-minneapolis-school/442497753/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636408)

"Ramsey is also noted for his statements calling for the killing or removal of specific Native Americans, chiefly the Sioux (Dakota) people that lived in the state of Minnesota. These statements came in response to attacks by the Sioux on American settlements, resulting in the death of not less than 800 men, women and children, as mentioned in Abraham Lincoln's Second Annual Message on December 1, 1862.[7] Ramsey declared on September 9, 1862: "The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state."[8] He went as far as offering money for scalps of Dakotas.[9]"

I.e., this was back when we had politicians that would defend citizens. In response to 800 men, women and children being murdered "we have to defeat the enemy by driving them out or killing them all" is perfectly reasonable. Referring to this as a call for genocide is as absurd as calling WW2 an attempt by the Allies to genocide the Japanese, which I guess is a claim you can look forward to in 2025 or so.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35637580)

gen·o·cide

noun

the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

eth·nic cleans·ing

noun: ethnic cleansing

the mass expulsion or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or religious group in a society.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35639906)

Rather they don't even frame the explanations in a way that can possibly lead to anything slightly uncomfortable for libs - it's framed as

"While critics of the Obama-era discipline changes argue that disparities cannot be explained away by racism, education leaders here say it is the natural place to start." - i.e. possible explanations are A) racism, B) not racism

Libs aren't even bothering with the whole "well the black kids are poorer and have single parents and it's tougher to teach and discipline them etc. etc." type of arguments, where in the past libs used poverty to explain these things - now any explanation hinting at the very possibility of any kinds of differences between these students based on race is no longer bullshitted, it's fully omitted from the discussion.

The white gym teacher realizes who the real racists are -

"The discipline model that he said had worked for him for 25 years — a warning, then a consequence — was no longer recognized by his bosses. He retired last year, labeled a racist.

'We do need to train teachers, especially white teachers, on how to interact with our African-American students,” he said. “But not expecting the same things from them is actually disrespectful. That would actually be racist.'”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636386)

Let's import more of these absolute bottom of the barrel feral monsters to our state! What could go wrong!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636425)

JFC libs.

First off: What EXACTLY do we mean by "disproportionate numbers of minority students in the criminal justice system?" Are they junior detectives? Volunteers at the local DA's office? Part of the community watch?

Call me crazy, but I suspect the sentence should read "Suspensions and expulsions are also linked to the disproportionate numbers of minority students who are criminals."

Second: Some kooky research shows that most criminals were also suspended/expelled at some point in the past. Now, I suppose it's vaguely possible that the trauma of an unfair suspension caused somebody to go on to a life of crime. But could there be another explanation? Anything at all? Libs who love science, help me out here.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636474)

"Last month, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights notified 43 school districts and charter schools that suspension rates for nonviolent offenses still suggested widespread discriminatory practices."

That's the news here: MN is continuing to pursue Obama-era polices under state law now even though the feds are obviously dropping it

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35636520)

Yeah good point libs are totally insane and hilariously wrong about this one issue, but they're right about the rest of the stuff good point

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#36512853)

I think this is it:

https://www.americanexperiment.org/article/no-thug-left-behind/

The St. Paul Superintendent was paid $800k to buy her contract out. LJL at working in biglaw.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35637585)

If this were the case - obviously all speculation in this post - and black students got away with more bad behavior for a while, then you would expect a harsher punishment when the punishment is formally enacted since many of the black students would already be carrying around a "bad behavioral balance" that teachers take into account. Whether it's fear, feeling sorry for those students etc.

If you ever get the chance to talk to someone in 'teach for america' program (if i remember program name correctly - popular program where they pay for your education if you teach at an underprivileged school for a few years after graduation...) - their experience will be very enlightening. (good friend of mine was this girl I knew from undergrad that was a math major with me and in all my classes - she was super lib but it's crazy to hear her experiences)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35637756)

Child B is generally well-behaved, and when he does misbehave , can be set right by gentle reproach from authority figures because he basically understands he was in the wrong.

Child A and Child B both do the same infraction. Do you punish them the same? Of course not. Discipline does not occur in a vacuum under laboratory conditions; you have to take into account the kid's disposition and history of behaviour.

Likewise in adult-world justice system: first time offenders are given more leniency than repeat offenders, parole violations are taken seriously, etc.

And everyone knows black kids are generally less well-behaved than white kids. More rigorous punishment for the same offence for black kids should not surprise anybody. If the difference persisted even after controlling for past behaviour, then you could plausibly claim racism, but not before.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35637834)

I found it darkly humorous that when I searched for "parent" nothing came up in the article.

Is it just skin color, or maybe something that goes beyond it? Like impulsive, dumb single parents?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#35639946)

http://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3312770&mc=128&forum_id=2

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3922647&forum_id=2#36512830)