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Saturday, June 16, 2018

Separating families at the border: Trump sees it as negotiating tactic. #KeepFamiliesTogether #WhereAreTheChildren

Separating families at the border: Trump sees it as negotiating tactic.

Trump Reportedly Ripping Children Away From Parents at Border as Negotiating Tactic


President Donald Trump has claimed to hate the policy that separates families at the border even as some of his top officials say it’s a way to deter immigrants from crossing into the United States. But turns out the commander in chief is moving forward with the practice that the American Academy of Pediatrics describes as causing children “irreparable harm” because it is a good negotiating tactic to give him the upper hand with Democrats, reports theWashington Post. “The president has told folks that in lieu of the laws being fixed, he wants to use the enforcement mechanisms that we have,” a White House official said. “The thinking in the building is to force people to the table.”
Publicly, Trump has pushed the message that Democrats are the ones who have the power to change the policy. “I hate the children being taken away,” Trump said Friday. But, as the Postnotes, using young immigrants as bait to get Democrats to agree to other demands isn’t new for the president. Previously he had tried to use protections for immigrants who were brought to the United States as children to try to get Democrats to agree to his immigration demands Continue reading: Separating families at the border: Trump sees it as negotiating tactic.







Why is Sacramento failing its black students? - Sacramento News & Review - Video 13 CBS Sacramento

Sacramento News & Review - Why is Sacramento failing its black students? - Feature Story - Local Stories - June 14, 2018

Why is Sacramento failing its black students?
Study reveals that Sacramento City Unified School District has suspended more black boys than any other district in the state



Levi Beckwith is too young to remember much about the first time he was kicked out of a classroom. It happened four years ago when he was in preschool at Woodlake Elementary School in the Twin Rivers Unified School District. Now 8, Levi recalls being removed from class a second time that year, though he can’t say why.

His mother, Tyffani Beckwith, remembers both suspensions vividly.
“It was after [Levi] telling his teacher several times that he was being teased and bullied,” Tyffani said.

Levi’s teacher didn’t intervene, his mother says, and Levi resorted to punching his classmate. He was sent home for several days. Later that year, Levi was suspended again, this time for being disruptive, something Tyffani says could’ve been avoided had the school called her.

“He’s in the second grade now,” Tyffani said, looking at her son sitting quietly next to her. “This is the first year of school that he has not gotten suspended—not once.”

Suspensions are frequent in Sacramento County school districts, especially for black boys like Levi.

According to researchers from San Diego State University and University of California, Los Angeles, Sacramento schools disproportionately suspend black boys. The researchers’ new study, “The Capitol of Suspensions: Examining the Racial Exclusion of Black Males in Sacramento County,” revealed that the schools with the worst record are right here in the state capital: The Sacramento City Unified School District has suspended more black boys than any other district in the state—including Los Angeles’ much larger one. Three other local districts are in the undesirable top 20 for disproportionate suspensions.

While the research brief didn’t examine what behavior preceded the suspensions, other studies have shown that black boys are disciplined more harshly than classmates of other races or ethnicities for the same minor transgressions.

“What we find as a pattern is that when black boys do things that are normal, it’s viewed as criminal,” said San Diego State education professor J. Luke Wood, one of the authors of the new report. “When white children do things that are normal, it’s viewed as just that—normal.”

Maybe you’ve heard of the school-to-prison pipeline? This is how it gets built, Wood says: on the backs of little black boys who are told from an early age that they are unfit for society. According to the figures, that message is loudest in Sacramento County classrooms.

Sacramento schools by the numbers
Black boys in the county’s four largest districts—Sacramento City Unified, Elk Grove Unified, Twin Rivers Continue Reading: Sacramento News & Review - Why is Sacramento failing its black students? - Feature Story - Local Stories - June 14, 2018


More Coverage 
Report: Black Male Students Suspended At Highest Rate In Sacramento Schools
CBS Sacramento


Elk Grove Parents Say School Officers Using Excessive Force
This comes at a time when the district is facing a number of issues dealing with race and discrimination against its black student population.