My son has been suspended five times. He’s 3.

[orangeblossom]

The school to prison pipeline is real. Data supports it, but still people don't want to believe it.

I posted an article earlier today, talking about white students inappropriate behavior being written off as a medical isue, while the same behavior for black students results in suspension, or worse, arrests.

A damn shame.

[erbear]

Aug 4, 2015 15:22:28 GMT -5 orangeblossom said:

The school to prison pipeline is real. Data supports it, but still people don't want to believe it.

I posted an article earlier today, talking about white students inappropriate behavior being written off as a medical isue, while the same behavior for black students results in suspension, or worse, arrests.

A damn shame.

All of this. I've seen it firsthand, and it's ugly.

[laurenpetro]

i've heard this before and it breaks my heart.

i know B has VERY bad behaviors that could result in his being asked to leave daycare. i know they're biding their time with his, mainly because they fear a lawsuit. his are likely worse than this child's and he has never been suspended. again, probably due to the fear of a lawsuit more than anything else.

[heyjude]

Even if you can argue this story is not a good example (not saying you can, but for the sake of argument let's say it's not a good example) the data is out there; black children especially black boys are kicked out of preschool at a far greater rate than white children. It is a huge, disgusting problem.

[sporklemotion]

I thought this story sounded familiar. It was part of a longer show on school discipline on This American Life:

link

[katfco]

I saw some of this last year and tried really hard to check myself in who I was writing up--was I writing up mostly the boys? Mostly the students of color? How did their behaviors match up? If a student called me on it, was there truth behind it, or were they trying to deflect away from their own behavior?

It's so hard to know for sure (about my own responses, I don't doubt at all the overall data), which is why I'm working on a more objective plan for this year.

I just hate the idea that children so little are already being criminalized.

[heyjude]

I researched this when my DD was kicked out of daycare at 22 months. (Side bar: Daycare! At 22 months!!!). I think I may have angerily googled "is it legal for my daycare to kick out my kid." And basically found a wealth of information. Daycare/preschool is not subject to the same due process requirements as public K-12. A private preschool/daycare essentially has carte blanche (emphasis on the blanche) to kick out kids at will with no due process. Oftentimes this results in black children getting kicked out disproportionately. There are some legal entities trying to change the laws but I haven't seen any movement yet.

[sfy]

Maybe this is flameful, but I think he should have been suspended, right along with any other children engaging in the same the behavior. Even at 4, I'm fine with the kid being put out for a day for violent behavior, because I wouldn't want someone's bad ass kid hitting my kid, throwing chairs at my kid or spitting on my kid, regardless of race. My only problem is, of course, the disparate nature of the punishments being applied and this is beyond difficult not just to combat, but even to identify, because sometimes, the cure is in how thing are approached even before they escalate. If a teacher soothes one child holding a chair and glares at another, they likely won't going to have the same reaction, and we already know that some teachers are going into their classrooms with the same biases that some police officers have. This is why even a zero tolerance policy for all violent behavior doesn't really solve the problem. It's so frustrating.

[origami]

That classroom sounds like a hot mess. Her kid threw a chair. Another kid threw something and sent a child to the hospital. Other kids are doing "similar" and "much worse" things. Suspension or not my kid would be out of there.

But back to the suspension thing. That's total crap that her kid was singled out. And I think suspending 4 year olds is ridiculous. Removing him from the classroom so he can settle down and not risk injuring someone, ok. But throwing chairs and other violent behavior, to me, means they all need to look into some kind of an IEP. At least go in that direction.

[auntie]

Aug 4, 2015 16:21:51 GMT -5 heyjude said:

I researched this when my DD was kicked out of daycare at 22 months. (Side bar: Daycare! At 22 months!!!). I think I may have angerily googled "is it legal for my daycare to kick out my kid." And basically found a wealth of information. Daycare/preschool is not subject to the same due process requirements as public K-12. A private preschool/daycare essentially has carte blanche (emphasis on the blanche) to kick out kids at will with no due process. Oftentimes this results in black children getting kicked out disproportionately. There are some legal entities trying to change the laws but I haven't seen any movement yet.

 

So true. Preschool/DC is private school. And where there's the exchange of money for education/child care administration will yield to the culture of the other parents to avoid the loss of a paying customer.  


I was surprised when I finally watched the news clip of the little boy being restrained in KY that he was white. 

[rugbywife]

Ok, so isn't the point of the article not so much that her kid shouldn't be punished but more that she gets the feeling (and the data supports) that consequences are more severe for POC?

Secondly, suspensions do little to improve this kind of behaviour. When kids act out of line with what is developmentally appropriate, it is because there is a skills gap. Suspending the kid doesn't fill that gap. If the point of the suspension is to ensure the parents are inconvenienced and become more willing to look at interventions and solutions, that's one thing, but suspending a kid is rarely ever going to change the behaviours. Kids do well if they can.

[eclaires]

Every time I read something like this I am reminded of the stats for suspensions in our school district and I get mad and depressed all over again. Percentage wise, black kids are a pretty small minority. But the percentage of black kids suspended is a huge majority. It's blatantly obvious.