Videos of a white sheriff's deputy in Columbia, South Carolina throwing a black high school girl to the floor on October 26, 2015 renewed a national discussion around disproportionate punishment for black students, write Richard Fausset, Richard Pérez-Peña, and Alan Blinder for The New York Times. The Justice Department is investigating the incident. In Richland School District Two, which encompasses parts of Columbia and its suburbs, 26 percent of students are white and 59 percent black, but blacks made up 77 percent of those suspended in 2011-12. In 2014-15, the district's racial divide led to formation of a Black Parents Association and a bitter campaign for control of the district's board. Despite this, the community has at times been seen as a model of amicable integration, where students of divergent backgrounds socialize together. James McLawhorn Jr., chief executive of the Columbia Urban League, said that over the last generation, as schools gradually shifted away from being mostly white, residents failed to grasp how the approach to discipline was also changing. But he cautioned against broad negative conclusions from October's incident. And while some students have called the deputy concerned overly rough or racist, others, of all races, defend his record in the school. Deputy Ben Fields has been the subject of two federal lawsuits about his conduct in the past. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.