Center for Public Integrity, News Report, Susan Ferris
One of America’s most liberal bastions — San Francisco — has cut student suspensions by nearly a third in three years but continues to struggle with grossly disproportionate suspensions of black students.
District data obtained by Public Counsel, the country’s largest pro bono legal group, and community organizers in San Francisco show that African-American students represented only 8 percent of the city’s public high school kids last school year. Yet 50 percent of high school students suspended for misbehavior labeled “willful defiance” were black.
Willful defiance is a vague, catchall category for disruptive student behavior that can range from arriving late to using foul language to refusing to obey instructions.
The district’s black and Latino students are 10 percent and 23 percent, respectively, of the student population.Together, however, students of these ethnic backgrounds comprised 77 percent of all student suspensions and 81 percent of all suspensions for willful defiance.
Just as The City by the Bay is challenged by sharp income divides, its schools, too, suffer from awide gap in academic achievement between white student and those who are black or Latino.
High rates of suspension result in poor academic performance as out-of-school kids fall behind and disengage from school, said Laura Faer, Public Counsel’s California statewide education rights director.
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