How Race Dictates School Discipline

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No parent likes to think about their kid getting in trouble at school, let alone getting suspended or expelled. But, as a recent article in the New York Times highlighted, some parents have more to worry about than others.

The article tells the story of 12-year-old Mikia, who got in trouble with another friend for writing graffiti on the walls of a bathroom in her Georgia school last year. Mikia’s friend was suspended for a few days, her family paid $100 in restitution, and the matter was set aside. Mikia’s parents said they couldn’t afford the $100, so Mikia was suspended for a few days, had a school disciplinary hearing, and was accused of a trespassing misdemeanor. She ultimately had to admit to allegations of criminal trespassing to get the charges dismissed in juvenile court, according to the Times.

Mikia is black. Her friend is white.

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According to a report issued in March by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, African-American students are expelled at a rate three times greater than white students — 16 percent versus 5 percent. And while boys receive more than two out of three suspensions, African-American girls are suspended at higher rates —12 percent — than girls of any other race, as well as more than most boys.

And this unequal treatment starts early. Like, preschool early. According to that same study, black children represent only 18 percent of preschool enrollments, but they represent 48 percent of the preschool kids getting more than one out-of-school suspension. (White students, on the other hand, represent 43 percent of preschool enrollments and only 26 percent of out-of-school suspensions.) Suspension. In pre-school.

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This kind of disparate treatment is about more than just a couple of days out of school, explains Russell Skiba, director of the Discipline Disparities Research to Practice Collaborative and a psychology professor at Indiana University Bloomington. “We’ve seen increases in use of suspension and expulsions over the last 10 years because educators believe it will make schools safer, but researchers have found suspensions don’t contribute to school safety, and instead place kids on a path towards increased disengagement, lower achievement, dropping out of school at increased rates, and high rate of contact with the criminal justice system,” Skiba tells Yahoo Parenting. “Suspensions lead to feelings of being rejected, and the idea that ‘I’m not wanted at school.’”

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Those feelings of rejection have longterm effects. “It’s not like you get suspended once and go to prison, but it’s a gradual disengagement from school,” he explains. “Kids end up out of school, having better associations at home or on the street, and thinking ‘Well, I’m not getting anything out of school and I am getting things on the street. That’s my source of support.’”

Brian Glassberg, a high school counselor at John P. Stevens High School in Edison Township, NJ, says these are the very reasons his school, with a diverse student population, uses suspension only as a last resort. “When you suspend a student, you’re taking them away from their education. They fall further behind, they feel worse about their capabilities, and they get in more disciplinary issues because they’re conforming to the mold we set for them,” Glassberg tells Yahoo Parenting. “Maybe suspension makes it easier for the teacher for a few days, but it’s not better for the students.”

Often, a single suspension can set off a cycle of more misbehavior and plummeting self-esteem. “If a kid’s self-esteem takes a hit, they end up trying to compensate for that by being the tough kid or the loud kid,” Glassberg says. “If you’re kicking kids out of school, they will find ways to compensate even if they aren’t productive ways.”

Parents send their kids to school for academic education, but also for their children to have a safe space to grow emotionally. But for mom and dad to have so little control over how their kids are treated at school can be frustrating, to say the least. In an October episode of the NPR radio show This American Life, African-American mom Tunette Powell spoke about reading the recent report from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights after her 4-year-old son was suspended from preschool… three times. “It just felt like [my kids] were a target. I felt like my kids — is this something that I have to worry about forever? Is this not something that I could just say was this one-time little thing?” she asked. “It’s like something that I’ll always have to be aware of and always have to think about and always have to be more involved than the next parent in my kids’ lives at school because of these studies.”

Skiba says that while parents might feel powerless when it comes to school discipline procedures, one thing they can do is insist on good communication. “Parents can ask that the school contact them early on if there’s an issue, and ask that they contact them when there are good things the kids do, too,” he says. “Parents can also inquire about the code of conduct for the school or district. More schools are beginning to stress positive alternatives, so ask, ‘How can my kid earn positives and be on a good track?’ Then parents can talk with their sons and daughters about the expectations: ‘This is how you get benefits and rewards, how are you doing on that?’ That will at least provide better coordination between home and the school.”