A Florida Reader Reports The Effects Of "Disparate Impact" Theory On Tampa's School Discipline
07/09/2014
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From: Florida Observer [Email him]

On June 29 the liberal Tampa Bay Times had an article about a mother's lawsuit against the Hillsborough County Schools related to the disciplining of children based upon race. Her claim is that blacks are punished more severely than whites, what appears to be "disparate impact." [Federal complaint questions how Hillsborough disciplines minority students By Zack Peterson, June 29, 2014]

I wrote a letter to them defending the school policy, but the Times almost always rejects my letters.

The mother, Latwaska Hamilton, agrees that her son has anger issues, but believes that black boys are targeted more than whites. Her case was taken by local professional activist Marilyn Williams to the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Division.

In my letter I point out the obvious—that black male students have for many years caused far more trouble in schools than whites or Asians. Schools with few behavior problems are nearly always made up mostly of whites and Asians, with blacks below 5 percent. Schools with very high black percentages are usually blackboard jungles of the worst kind. Black misconduct in schools has grown worse under Obama as his Department of Justice has actually threatened schools that discipline blacks excessively. School discipline has become a politically dicey game that handicaps teachers facing minority student deviant behavior.

Secondly, I point out that unpunished bad behavior only gets worse. Not only does punishment serve as a deterrent, it fulfills our principles of justice. All children require moral training that black parents, often single, cannot supply. Undisciplined black children are a menace that threatens school order daily. Now Obama blames the schools for the failures of black parents. To sue the schools for punishing black misconduct is to add insult to injury and make teaching a real hell.

The FBI annual crime statistics clearly place blacks first in violent behavior year after year. Uninformed critics who sue the schools greatly aggravate the problems of classroom control in many urban schools with high black enrollments. Before the "emancipation" of blacks back in 1965 with the Civil Rights Act and Johnson's Great Society program, children in most schools were still disciplined rather firmly.

However, discipline at home and in school has been gradually emasculated, with blacks showing strong negative effects of dysfunctional family life. Teachers are now placed in a ridiculous bind in which bad behavior cannot be punished by removing black students from classes.

The suspension rate for blacks in the Hillsborough County Schools was over 20,000 per year for many years. Few people ever protested. Today, Obama's constant interference and biased position makes it inevitable that schooling cannot escape his wrath. He assumes that all children are equal and therefore "disparate impact" clearly implies guilt. The solution is the refutation of the equality dogma or at least the proof that black kids were misbehaving more than whites. Once trusted by nearly everyone, today's teachers may now enter a new era of nearly total distrust, while black male students carry their deviance to new heights.

See previous letters from the same reader.

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