The disturbing assault of a black female student at South Carolina’s Spring Valley High School by now fired Officer Ben fields has ignited a debate over policing practices in schools nationwide. The debate has shifted to how these policing practices disproportionately affect students of color, such as this 14-year-old black student wrestled to the ground after a School Resource Officer grabbed him by the throat. Here’s the data that proves the higher odds people of color, especially black female students, have of facing disciplinary action—which as we’ve seen can quickly be used as an excuse for violence—in Southern schools.
An examination of the Los Angeles Unified School District police in 2012 by Susan Ferris for the Center of Public Integrity in 2013 showed students of color less than 14-years-old received citations more frequently for small infractions such as being a little late to class in comparison to other races.
Another study from the University of Pennsylvania tracked the suspension rates of students from 13 Southern states across 132 school districts. In that study South Carolina concluded to be very discriminatory. Although black students only make up 36 percent of the student body statewide, black students make up 60 percent of those suspended from schools. Even worse, black students make up 100 percent of student suspensions in 84 Southern school districts.
When it comes to suspensions black female students are suspended six times as much as white female students, reports the African American Policy Forum and Columbia Law School’s Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies.
Now is as good a time as any to discuss these frightening trends, raise awareness, and hopefully make strides to change them both inside the classroom and outside the classroom.
