Drummond: Oakland schools hope to reduce suspensions of black boys
Posted: 10/15/2012 04:40:35 PM PDT
Updated: 10/16/2012 05:12:04 AM PDT
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How is this possible?
One out of every three black boys in middle school in the Oakland public school system was suspended during the 2010-2011 academic year for bad behavior.
African-American boys make up 17 percent of Oakland public school students but were a whopping 42 percent of those suspended.
Those jarring findings released by the Urban Strategies Council in May led to a federal investigation of the Oakland school district for potential civil rights violations. As a result, Oakland school officials have agreed to allow federal monitoring of their efforts to reduce out-of-school suspensions of African-American students -- thus avoiding a federal lawsuit.
One would think that out-of-school suspension would be a course of last resort -- reserved for only those students who commit the most egregious offenses