Getting the Numbers Right

I wonder how common this is?  To the extent that minority children are not being disciplined appropriately and fairly because of fears by administrators of being accused of racism, that's a total disaster for the kids.  Young kids, mine included, but especially those from broken homes and/or neighborhoods, DESPERATELY need firm guidance on appropiate behavior and serious consequences for transgressions.

There never was a smoking-gun memo, or a special meeting where the word got out, and I never made a conscious decision to change my approach to punishment, but somehow we knew we had to get our numbers "right"--that is, we needed to suspend fewer minorities or haul more white folks into the dean's office for our ultimate punishment.

What this meant in practice was an unarticulated modification of our disciplinary standards. For example, obscenities directed at a teacher would mean, in cases involving minority students, a rebuke from the dean and a notation on the record or a letter home rather than a suspension. For cases in which white students had committed infractions, it meant zero tolerance. Unofficially, we began to enforce dual systems of justice. Inevitably, where the numbers ruled, some kids would wind up punished more severely than others for the same offense.

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Getting the Numbers Right
To avoid charges of "racism," we disciplined black and white students differently.

BY EDMUND JANKO
Wednesday, October 25, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110009145

Not long ago, when a study from the left-leaning Applied Research Center charged a "deep pattern of institutional racism" in the disciplinary practices of public school districts around the country, it brought back some memories.