And Justice for All

When I refer to 'And Justice for All' I am not making a insignificant reference to the Pledge of Allegiance.  The phrase has some meaningful connection to the disciplinary measures taken in local and nationwide schools.

Such organizations as the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA, the NAACP and the U.S. Dept. of Educations's Office for Civil Rights have all concluded that the disciplinary measures imposed on school children are unequal with respect race.  The results of the study are to be found in the Wednesday, Sept. 26th Chicago Tribune.

The bottom line is this:  black and Hispanic students are much more often to referred to the local police than white students.  The report also found that other disciplinary measures are disproportionately used on non-white students.  By the way, this is not a situation that merely exists in the inner cities, it is also a dilemma in suburban regions.

The UCLA study found that Illinois had the highest rate of suspending black students in 2009-10.  Again, this condition exists within both inner city and suburban areas of our state.

The above is clearly an issue on many levels; societal, at the local level and within the educational setting.  It also raises many questions.  One is left to ponder the following.  Why does this situation exist?  What are the conditions that allow disciplinary measures to be doled out on an unequal basis?  Do those who hand out the various disciplary consequences understand all the circumstances and conditions that led to the infraction?  Are minority students being targeted?  Finally, what is to be done to remedy the unequal treatment?  These are but a few of the critical questions facing those in the educational community.

Let me offer one other point.  I am pretty sure black, Asian and Hispanic students, and their families, are aware of this.  And don't think, for a minute, that this doesn't cause some real resentment and anger.  In turn, this will surely cause additional problems within the classroom. 

We all want to be treated the same.  We should expect nothing less than equal justice for all.

Thanks,
Dick