RTD story

Posted: Thursday, August 27, 2015 4:50 pm

By NED OLIVER AND TED STRONG Richmond Times-Dispatch

Activists pushing for a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions in public schools flooded public comment periods at school board meetings in Chesterfield and Henrico counties this week.



“I’m not trying to come out here from Richmond and tell you what to do,” said E. Martin Jewell, a former Richmond City Council member and current Richmond NAACP education committee chairman. “But you mess with my children, you mess with my soul.”

His statement Wednesday came after a string of comments calling on Henrico to do better and highlighting successful projects elsewhere. To balance the mood, the activists started their presentation with a trust circle, a sort of group hug involving the board members and the activists.

“Would you mind coming down as a School Board so we can just love you up?” asked Sheila Warren, an activist from Oregon, to get the board down off the dais for the trust circle.

In Henrico public schools, blacks made up nearly 70 percent of students who got out-of-school suspensions, but they account for only 37 percent of the student body.

In Chesterfield, where blacks make up 27 percent of the student body, black students received 52 percent of out-of-school suspensions. Chesterfield also referred the most students to law enforcement of any district in the state. Of students referred to law enforcement, 55 percent were black.

Chesterfield officials told the group Tuesday that they had made progress on reducing the number of students referred to law enforcement since the data were collected. From the 2013-14 school year to the 2014-15 school year, the number of incidents the district reported to law enforcement dropped from 1,444 to 866, said Bob Talley, the district’s director of student conduct and pupil placement.

“We’re not where any of us want to be but, in the past several years, there’s been a marked reduction in incidents we’ve had to report to law enforcement,” said Talley, crediting behavioral programs initiated by the district.

Henrico has managed to sharply reduce the number of students suspended in recent years, though the proportion of suspended students who are black has remained stubbornly high. And the county has recently enacted a new code of conduct for students, designed to shift away from zero-tolerance-type rules.

Henrico’s police chief recently announced a plan to change the way juvenile arrests are handled countywide. He also has said school resource officers will no longer get involved in school discipline. He said they will be limiting themselves to safety issues.

School Board Chairman John Montgomery Jr. outlined many of the things the division is doing to reduce disparities in discipline and opportunity. He also thanked the activists.

“As you go home, please know that our hugs go with you,” he said.

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Nationwide, blacks are 12% of the population yet commit something like 66% of crimes.  If black kids are 37% of the school system, it wouldn't be a stretch for me to think that they would have disciplinary troubles well beyond their 37% representation.  Nothing racist about that.  
These SJW's think that if blacks are 37 % then they should represent 37% of the cases and suspensions, and it just doesn't work that way.  This is nothing but more of this "equal outcome" bull$hit that the left pushes.

Being expected to follow rules is racist.

Personally, I always thought In school suspension was more of a punishment than sending a kid who is acting up home.  I wonder if there are cultural elements in play here.  What are the stats for say, Asian kids in the disrtrict?  I also have to wonder who is paying to import "activists" from out of state.

Yep the numbers should be even.  Black children should get no more suspensions then their percentage representation.  I mean, you go out to the west end of Henrico in Three Chopt and they have brawls just like they do at Varina HS.  

When it comes to handing out benefits, giving preferential treatment, or excusing bad behavior, the Left always wants to take into consideration all sorts of other factors like income inequality, racism, cultural differences, etc in order to rationalize inherently biased policy or explain away negative behavior.  However, when it comes to the Justice system, education system, or employment system, they want to ignore all the relevant factors like the crime rate, religious teachings, marriage and pregnancy rates, and education level of certain groups that would explain disproportionate outcomes between groups.  Instead we're all treated as widgets and if the statistical outcomes don't exactly match the population proportions among groups, then it is because of racism/sexism/homophobia/religious prejudice/etc.

I would have gone to Highland Springs if I wasn't homeschooled... I just know I would have been shanked before the end of the first day... I just know it.