Miami Herald:Schools discipline blacks more than others

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http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/miamiherald/living/education/12920964.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_education

Posted on Mon, Oct. 17, 2005
EDUCATION STUDY


Schools discipline blacks more than others

Black students are arrested, suspended and expelled at a higher rate than are other students, a study found.

BY PETER BAILEY
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Racial profiling permeates South Florida classrooms, as black students face suspension, expulsion and arrest at the hands of color-coded justice, a study says.

Citing a recent report from the Advancement Project, a civic group based in Washington, officials say that black students are disproportionately suspended, expelled and arrested in comparison to white classmates.

Last year, Miami-Dade school police arrested about 2,500 students, an increase of 50 percent from two years ago. More than 50 percent of those arrested were black, even though black students make up only 28 percent of county enrollment.

In the 2003-2004 school year, black elementary students were five times more likely to be suspended than their white classmates.

NAACP officials say the numbers show a school system stained by racism.

''There's an institutionalized racism at work,'' said state NAACP President Adora Obi Nweze. ``The bottom line is that the NAACP will take the lead and expose this for what it is.''

The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is holding public hearings in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties throughout the week. A team of lawyers from the NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Advancement Project will offer legal representation to students who contend they were wrongfully penalized.

The group has already held hearings in Hillsborough and Duval counties. ''There is a difference in the way they treat African-American children as opposed to the way they treat white children for the same offenses,'' Nweze said.

Miami-Dade officials admit that disparities exist and that schools Police Chief Gerald Darling, Associate Superintendent Freddie Woodson and Superintendent Rudy Crew, all of whom are black, are sensitive to the issue.

''No one is more troubled by this data than Dr. Crew. We have an African-American associate superintendent of school operations and an African-American schools police chief,'' district spokesman Joseph Garcia said. ``There is a high degree of sensitivity to these numbers.''

Garcia said Darling is trying to foster a cultural change in the police force by implementing a philosophy of community policing where students interact with officers.

Crew, Darling, and Woodson declined to comment on the report's findings. . . .