re: Obama on school discipline

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Especially when the resulting disparity lies on racial lines - that pretty much means you can exclude racism as a factor.

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No, but correlation does not equate to causation.

If statistics show that blacks commit a disproportionate share of violent crime, but we also overlay that with blacks are disproportionately the victims of violent crime, there should be no racist intent inferred from prosecuting those crimes.

Now, if black criminals were being targeted, yet black victims were being ignored - while whites were getting a pass for the same things blacks were getting locked up for - and I'm not denying there can be individual incidents of this - there should be no surprise that black kids present more discipline problems (as a group) than white kids (or Asian kids, etc.)

Now - having said that - we have few options. I would prefer to identify the troublemakers early - redirect them into an increasingly restrictive environment so they can only impede their own education (or at worst, a few other miscreats) - while we facilitate those who desire an education and are educatable - rather than to continue to allow the bad apples to spoil the barrel.

And I don't think this has to be racist - however, it will look so, because the redirected kids will (I predict) be disproportionately African American. What will be ignored by the race hustlers is that my plan will save more African Americans from this environment than we will let slip between the cracks. It's politically impossible, but that makes it neither wrong, nor ineffective.

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Obama on school discipline

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Well there is a problem with "zero tolerance" policies because they are both innefective and got me truly 'against school' when I was younger.

In many ways public schools are prisons you have to let your kid go to during the day. If they so much as bump into someone in the hallway they can be extrajudiciously punished or their belongings searched.

What a free society

I don't know about Caddo Parish but Bossier has a cop in every HS and Jr. Hi.

If Johnny hauls off and punches Billy in the nose Johnny is not sent to the principal's office. He is cuffed and charged with assault.

As a result of this policy violence in Bossier schools is extremely rare.

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The disparity in how illegal drug using blacks are treated relative to whites is well documented.

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Link?

I agree that the disparity between the way crack is treated, vice powder cocaine has a disparate effect (and really makes no sense) - but this would be true if we used a class filter, as well. Poor whites would be caught in this conundrum, just as wealthier blacks would benefit from this disparate treatment - the policy itself (although nonsensical) is color blind in both construction and application - albeit the discriminatory effect is undeniable.

But that is an exception. Marijuana is not even associated with a particular social class today - it can be argued that high profile African American proponents (hip hop, NBA, etc.) have pushed legalization efforts far further than white proponents such as Willie Nelson and Woody Harrelson.

Prescription pill abuse is another issue that knows no racial boundary - if anything laws targeting this abuse have a disproportionate effect on whites. Ditto for crystal meth (at least until recently.)

OK, now I remember the case. Travon Martin committed some crimes in school. Burglarized stuff found in his locker. The school district was under intense to reduce the number of arrests of students. So, the school district begged the cops to reclassify the crime as 'school discipline issue.' The cops complied and Martin was never tried for burglary.