Something less racist from Al Thompson. Doesn't he see the connection between the Jena 6 and this bit? Guess not - E-K. Blacks Disciplined More Often in Schools What would you find if you looked locally? The Chicago Tribune finds (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-070924discipline,0,22104.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout) : In the average New Jersey public school, African-American students are almost 60 times as likely as white students to be expelled for serious disciplinary infractions. In Minnesota, black students are suspended 6 times as often as whites. In Iowa, blacks make up just 5 percent of the statewide public school enrollment but account for 22 percent of the students who get suspended. The story continues: In every state but Idaho, a Tribune analysis of the data shows, black students are being suspended in numbers greater than would be expected from their proportion of the student population. In 21 states�Illinois among them�that disproportionality is so pronounced that the percentage of black suspensions is more than double their percentage of the student body. And on average across the nation, black students are suspended and expelled at nearly three times the rate of white students. No other ethnic group is disciplined at such a high rate, the federal data show. Hispanic students are suspended and expelled in almost direct proportion to their populations, while white and Asian students are disciplined far less. Yet black students are no more likely to misbehave than other students from the same social and economic environments, research studies have found. Don't miss this bit of context: "There simply isn't any support for the notion that, given the same set of circumstances, African-American kids act out to a greater degree than other kids," said Russell Skiba (http://site.educ.indiana.edu/ProfilePlaceHolder/tabid/6210/Default.aspx?u=skiba) , a professor of educational psychology at Indiana University whose research focuses on race and discipline issues in public schools. "In fact, the data indicate that African-American students are punished more severely for the same offense, so clearly something else is going on. We can call it structural inequity or we can call it institutional racism." We sometimes have problems with our server rejecting incoming email. If your reply to this email is returned to you, PLEASE call me at the number below. Apologies...We are working on it. Sincerely, Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin, Professor Department of Communications Alabama State University 915 South Jackson St. Montgomery, AL 36101-0271 334.229.6885 Thank you in advance for your Scholarly & Creative Activity Referrals - Lectures, Performances, Workshops, Consultation Related Info: http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin/ <http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin/>