The Obama administration has
called on public school officials to rein in the use of “zero-tolerance”
policies and law enforcement in giving out discipline to students, a practice
that has ensnared minority and special needs students disproportionately.
“Too often, so-called
zero-tolerance policies, however well-intentioned, make students feel unwelcome
in their own schools. They disrupt the learning process and they can have
significant and lasting negative effects on the long-term well-being of our
young people – increasing their likelihood of future contact with juvenile and
criminal justice systems,” Attorney General Eric Holder said on Monday, during
an event at Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore, where he and
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced a slew of new guidelines for
school discipline.
“We’ve seen that severe
discipline policies often increase the numbers of suspensions and expulsions
without effectively making schools safer or creating better learning
environments,” Holder continued. “And we’ve seen that the impacts of
exclusionary policies are not felt equally in every segment of the population –
with students of color and those with disabilities often receiving different and
more severe punishments than their peers.”
African-American and
special-education students, particularly boys, are far more likely than their
white peers to be suspended for minor or similar infractions, according to a
number of recent studies, including one by the Education Department’s Office
for Civil Rights, which found that black students without disabilities are
suspended or expelled at a rate three times that of their white peers.
No comments:
Post a Comment