Failing Grade! Are Black Students Unfairly Suspended? | MadameNoire

Failing Grade! Are Black Students Unfairly Suspended? | MadameNoire: One African-American mother recently complained to CNN that her three-year-old son had been suspended five times from pre-school–yes pre-school! This may sound outrageous but according to recently released data from the Department of Education, black students are three times more likely to be suspended from school that white kids.

Overall 7,500 students are suspended at least once from preschool annually nationwide but black students are being suspended three times more than whites kids across all grades. According to Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, these stats prove there is a pipeline from preschool to prison for many black students.

“We know there is a correlation between doing out-of-school suspensions and expulsions and ultimately locking kids up and in far too many communities the school to prison pipeline is real and the fact that it starts as four again simply isn’t good enough,” he told CNN.

Over in Los Angeles, the country’s second largest public school system, they are trying to reverse these stats, which Dr. John Deasy, superintendent of the LAUSD, blames on the same bias we still have in the country.