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a Cimes
VOLUME 93 - NUMBER 11
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2014
Bias a Factor
In Suspending
Black Students
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - A new collection of research shows
I that despite the myths surrounding black student behavior, poverty
and severity of the offense have very little to do with the rate black
students are suspended from school.
Rather, the studies point a finger in another direction: the implicit
bias perpetrated by school officials.
The Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative, a
group of researchers, educators, advocates, and policy analysts fund
ed by the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Open Society Foundations,
compiled the research on school discipline.
Judith Browne Dianis,
co-director of the Ad
vancement Project tes
tifying before Congress
on the school-to-prison
pipeline. (Photo courtesy
Freddie Allen/NNPA)
According to the Collaborative, more than 3 million students from
kindergarten to 12th grade were suspended during the 2009-2010
school year, twice the rate of suspensions since the 1970s. Black stu
dents are nearly 3.5 times as likely to be suspended than their white
peers.
In the briefing paper titled. "Are Black Kids Worse? Myths and
Facts about Racial Differences in Behavior." researchers from the
Equity Project at Indiana University in Bloomington found that
"there is simply no good evidence that racial differences in discipline
are due to differences in rates or types of misbehavior by students of
different races."
Research also showed that despite popular myths the relationship
between poverty and disruptive school behavior has been overstated.
When researchers looked at middle school referrals, white stu
dents were more likely to get sent to office over "observable offens
es" such as smoking and vandalism and black students were disci
plined more frequently for subjective reasons including disrespectful
behavior, loud noise and defiance.
"In other words, regardless of a school's official disciplinary pol
icy. there are a variety of factors involved in determining a student's
punishment, not the least of which is the mood, ideology, philoso
phy. values, and biases of the adults making that decision," stated the
briefing paper on implicit bias. "The more subjective the category of
offense - i.e.. insubordination, disobedience, disruption, defiance -
the greater the risk that bias (either explicit or unconscious) w ill seep
into the process."
Researchers often use the Implicit Association Test to measure
implicit bias.
"Researchers have found that 80°o of tested whites and 40°o of
tested blacks show a pro-w hite bias.” stated the briefing paper. "They
consistently implicitly associate blacks with negative attitudes such
as bad and unpleasant, and with negative stereoty pes such as aggres
sive and lazy.”
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin developed a "tool
kit" of strategies to combat implicit bias including stereoty pe replace
ment, counter-stereoty pic imagining that involves thinking about a
famous or familiar person that debunks the stereoty pe, learning about
a person's background and developing an individualized response,
tastes, hobbies, and family, and perspective-taking.
"All children deserve access to a quality education, but too of
ten, children of color are pushed out of the classroom - not because
they're behaving any w orse than other students, but because of harsh
and often discriminatory school disciplinary policies." said Judith
Browne Dianis. co-director of the Advancement Project and member
of the research collaborative. "While the notion of a post-racial soci-
ety is aspirational in theory, racial discrimination in school discipline
is a major problem."
The Collaborative also recommended that schools utilize "a sys
tematic protocol" such as the Virginia Threat Assessment Guidelines
instead of zero tolerance policies that quickly usher's students down
the school-to-prison pipeline.
The Collaborative researchcis reported that. "Use of the Virginia
Th' ! Assessment Guidelines across schools in Virginia was associ-
a teu with a 19% reduction in the number of long-term suspensions
and an 8° o reduction in the number of short-term suspensions, greater
than schools not using the Guidelines."
The Virginia Threat Assessment Guidelines entail communicating
"ith the students involved, distinguishing between real and fleeting
threats, and intervening before any threats escalate into violence.
The Collaborative briefing paper on new research stated: "Use of
the Guidelines was associated with reductions in suspensions for all
racial groups included in the study, as well as a reduction in dispro-
Portionality between black males and w hite even after controlling for
school size and poverty .**
hi schools that didn't follow the Virginia Threat Assessment
Guidelines, there was a six point gap between black male and white
Male student long-term suspension rates, compared to a three point
Sap in schools that followed the guidelines.
The Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative
^commended a range of interventions including building supportive
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President Barack Obama recognizes Medal of Honor honorees, from left, Staff Sergeant Melvin Morris,
Sergeant First Class Jose Rodela, and Specialist Four Santiago J. Erevia, during the Medal of Honor ceremo
ny in the East Room of the White House, March 18. (Official W hite House Photo by Pete Souza)
Obama gives Medal of Honor to 24 vets from 3 wars
By Jim Kuhnhenn
WASHING TON (AP) - Twenty-four mostly ethnic or minority U.S. soldiers who performed bravely under fire in three of the nation's wai
finally received on March 18 the Medal of Honor that the government concluded should have been awarded a long time ago.
fhe servicemen - Hispanics. Jews and African-Americans - were identified following a congressionally mandated review to ensure ih.u
eligible recipients of the country s highest recognition for valor were not bypassed due to prejudice. Only three of the 24 were alive for Presi
dent Barack Obama to drape the medals and ribbons around their necks.
" Today we have the chance to set the record straight." Obama said. "No nation is perfect, but here in America we confront our impedes
lions and face a sometimes painful past, including the truth that some of these soldiers fought and died for a country that did not always s^
them as equal."
The three surviving recipients - Vietnam veterans Jose Rodela. Melvin Morris and Santiago Previa - received a prolonged standing ovation
at Obama's side, their faces set in somber acknow lodgement of the hoiwr.
Rodela was a 3 l-year-old company commander of a Special Forces strike group on Sept. I. 1969, in Phuoc Long Province. Vietnam, when
he and his company of Cambodian soldiers whom he had helped recruit came under fire from North Vietnamese Army troops.
According to his Medal of Honor citation and supporting documents, the battle lasted IS hours and 11 men in his company were killed
and 33 others wounded.
The citation states that late in the battle. Rodela "was the only member of his company who was moving and he began to run from one
position to the next, checking for casualties and moving survivors into different positions in an attempt to form a stable defense line. I lirough-
out the battle, in spite of his wounds. Rodela repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to attend to the fallen and eliminate an enemy rocket
position."
In an interview with the Army News Service last December, he said simply. "We trained for this and I would have done it again."
Morris was a staff sergeant during combat operations on Sept. I 7. 1969. near Chi Lang. South Vietnam. According to the Pentagon. Mori is
led soldiers across enemy lines to retrieve his team sergeant, .who had been killed. He single-handedly destroyed an enemy force hidden in
bunkers that had pinned down his battalion. Morris was shot three times as he ran with American casualties.
Morris received the Distinguished Scrv ice Cross in April 1970. I hat same month, he returned to Vietnam for his second lour.
"I never really did worry about decorations." Morris told I he Associated Press last month. But he said he fell to his knees when he received
the surprise call from Obama with news that he was to be honored.
Previa was cited for courage while serving as a radio-telephone operator on May 21. 1969. during a search-and-clear mission near lam
Ky. South Vietnam. He was a specialist 4 when his battalion tried to lake a hill fortified by Viet Cong and North Vietnam Army soldiers. I he
Pentagon says he single-handedly silenced four Viet Cong bunkers.
As for the medal, he told the publication Soldier Live last month. "I'm only thankful I'm getting it while I'm alive."
Among those who received a posthumous medal was Leonard Kravitz, an assistant machine gunner in the Korean War who is credited
with saving his platoon by providing cover for retreating troops. He died in the attack. He is the uncle of singer and actor Lenny Kravitz, who
attended Tuesday‘s ceremony.
Tuesday's mass ceremony, the largest since World War II. was the result of an Army review conducted unde ■ directive from Congress
in the 2002 National Defense Authorization Act. I he law required that the record of each Jewish-American an .panic-American veteran
w ho recei v cd a Serv ice Cross during or after World War 11 be rev iewed foi possible upgrade to the Me lai of Ik
The Pentagon said the Army reviewed the cases of the 6.505 recipients of the Distinguished Serv ice Cross from World War II and the
Korean and Vietnam wars and found an eligible pool of 600 soldiers who may have been Jewish or Hispanic. The Army also worked with
the National Museum of American Jewish Military History, the Jewish War Veterans of the USA and the American GI Forum, the largest
Hispanic-American veterans group, to pinpoint potential medal recipients.
During the initial rev iew. investigators found that other soldiers who had received the Distinguished Service Cross appeared to meet the
criteria for a Medal of Honor and the directive was expanded to permit them to be considered for the upgraded honor.
Voter ID bill gets first look by NC Hoose panel
RALFIGII (AP) - The political div ide in IK ... a date icgi Jaiure lully in Republican hands w idened March 15 as GOP lawmakers pushed
a bill that would force voters to show a photv identification card when casting a ballot.
Democrats believe the legislation is aimed at keeping u^rr voters away from the polls, but Republicans said their intention is deterring
voter fraud al a lime that early voting weeks in advance of Flection Day is grow ing more popular.
"The door is w ide open to be exploited fraudulently." said Rep. Tim Moore. R Cleveland. one of the bill's co-sponsors. The bill "simply
provides safeguard against voter fraud."
But Rep. Mickey Michaux. D-Durham. said the proposal would thwart - oting by blacks, who may be more likely to lack a state-issued ID.
"What you're doing is an abomination on the right to vote with this bill." he said.
A stale Board of Flection study of registered voters found that about I million voters did not match w ith Department of Motor Vehicles
records of state-issued licenses or ID cards. Of that I million lacking the primary stale-issued IDs. more than half were registered Democrats,
more than 277.000 Republicans and 219.000 unaffiliated voters.
The bill sets aside $600,000 to help county election boards create new voter identification cards, but opponents said the experience of other
states shows it could be 30 times that amount.
Sponsors plan to change the measure ahead of an expected vote in the House Flections Committee next Wednesday after several flaws in
the language w ere pointed out. Michaux noted college students attending a private school such as Duke or Davidson couldn't use their student
ID to vote because it wasn't issued by the slate, while those attending a public university could.
For tw o hours before the committee hearing, law makers heard from dozens of people mobilized to speak on the voter ID bill.
The Rev. William Barber, president of the slate chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told commit
tee members that voter fraud isn't an issue. He likened it to a form of Jim Crow voter suppression in the 21st century.
"It is.ridiculous. It is regressive. It is wrong and its implementation will constitute a political form of racism and classism." Barber said as
he offered the committee chairman a copy of the 15th Amendment that ensured blacks had the right to vote. "We need to end this foolishness.''
Several speakers opposed to photo identification before voting also could make it difficult for people with disabilities, recent college
graduates and married women w ho changed their names close to an election to vote.
Bob Hall, director of the nonpartisan Democracy North Carolina, called the bill "as phony as a three-dollar bill."
It has an appearance of being genuine, but ify ou hold up to the light and examine it more closely, it's a sham. It's a political trick, he said.
But other speakers have said the identification will ensure people are who they say they are when the vote and should speed up the voting
process.
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