A report released last week by an oversight committee for the San Diego City School District reveals that race plays a role in how a student is disciplined in San Diego. The study shows that black students are suspended three times more often than whites. It also said that one third of all black students suspended were suspended more than once. African-American, Asian and Hispanic students are suspended more often and for longer periods than their white schoolmates. In general, suspensions were up across the board since a previous study 10 years ago.
Suspension is the most severe punishment a school can administer short of expulsion.
The committee also noted a link between suspension and low academic performance. In response to the report San Diego City Schools developed a list of recommendations to change the current situation. The suggestions included a plan to expand cultural sensitivity training in hopes of combating what appears to be cultural bias in student discipline. Perhaps the first school district employee that could use a dose of sensitivity training is school board member Sue Braun. Pointing to the district's ethnically diverse population and the misunderstandings that can arise from that, Braun gave her own explanation for the high black suspension rate.