Black Or Not, Off The Hook, Suspend 'em!

I really am sensitive, shall we say, to this situation. My daughter had a teacher who wanted her put on Ritalin because she thought my daughter talked too much. Well, my daughter DID talk too much, especially when she wasn't challenged enough, but for a girl, in kindergarten and first grade, talking too much is normal! For us, her parents, the final straw came when the teacher, again, suggested Ritalin and said if we didn't do it, my daughter's punishment may get more severe which would cause a permanent entry in her school record. My daughter was in the first grade and a woman who had no medical experience at all, was demanding my child be placed on a drug. The school said although there have been complaints by some parents suggesting the woman didn't know how to handle a class, the school would back the teacher. At the end of the school year, we pulled her from the Lutheran school and placed her in a Catholic school.

However, if your child is misbehaving, Black or not, there have to be consequences.

Schools address black students' suspensions

Under pressure to reduce the suspension rate of black students, Anne Arundel County is making progress by training staff in how to work with people of different backgrounds and giving troublesome students more support.

Experts say such training is a key to keeping African-American students throughout Maryland in school. Last year, 13.9 percent of black children were suspended statewide, compared with 5.8 percent of white kids. Studies have linked suspensions and expulsions to lower academic achievement and higher dropout rates.

Teachers and administrators may misinterpret the body language and occasional confrontational behavior that some African-Americans learn in their neighborhoods and use at school as a way of standing up for themselves, veteran educators say. They will often back down if they're made to feel safe.

"Being rude means one thing to you and another to me," said Ella White Campbell, a retired city school teacher and an education advocate in Baltimore County.

While I understand the concern, MAYBE instead of "cultural training" of the teachers, training of the kids may be in order. Again, this seems to come down to home training. Rude is rude no matter what your race.