Nationally, black junior
high and high school
students are suspended
at a rate more than three
times as often as their
white peers, twice as
often as their Latino peers,
more than 10 times as often
as their Asian peers.
According to former Department
 of Education Secretary Arne
Duncan, the “huge disparity is
ng, professional development,
and discipline policies. It is adult
behavior that needs to change.”
In other words, the Education
 Department sees no difference
between the behavior of black
 students and white, Latino, and
 Asian students. It’s just that
black students are singled out
 for discriminatory discipline.
Driven by Obama administration
 pressures, school districts
 revised their discipline
procedures by cutting the
 number of black student
 suspensions.



Max Eden, senior fellow at the
Manhattan Institute, has written
a report, “School Discipline
Reform and Disorder: Evidence
 from New York City Public
Schools, 2012-16.”
The new discipline imposed on
public schools is called
 restorative justice. Rather
than punish a student through
 exclusion (suspension),
restorative justice encourages
 the student who has
 misbehaved to reflect on his
 behavior, take responsibility,
and resolve to behave better
 in the future.
The results of this new policy
are increased violence, drug
use, and gang activity.
Eden examines the NYC
School Survey of teachers
and students and finds that
violence increased in 50
 percent of schools and
decreased in 14 percent. Gang
 activity increased in 39 percent
 of schools and decreased in
11 percent.
For drug and alcohol use, there
 was a 37 percent increase while
 only 7 percent of schools
 improved.
It’s not just New York City where
 discipline is worse under the
 Obama administration’s policy.
 Eden reports:
One Chicago teacher told the

Chicago Tribune that her

district’s new discipline policy

led to “a totally lawless few

months” at her school. One

Denver teacher told

Chalkbeat that, under the

new discipline policy,

students had threatened

to harm or kill teachers,

“with no meaningful

consequences.” … After

Oklahoma City Public

Schools revised its discipline

policies in response to

federal pressure, one

teacher told the Oklahoman

that “[w]e were told that

referrals would not require

suspension unless there

was blood.”
Eden reports that in Oklahoma
City a teacher said that:
Students are yelling, cursing,

hitting, and screaming at

teachers and nothing is

being done but

teachers

are being told to teach

and ignore the

behaviors. These

students know there

is nothing a teacher

can do. Good students

are now suffering

because of the abuse

and issues plaguing

these classrooms.
In Buffalo, a teacher who
 was kicked in the head by
 a student said: “We have
 fights here almost every day.
 The kids walk around and
 say, ‘We can’t get
suspended—we don’t care
what you say.’”
Ramsey County attorney
John Choi of St. Paul,
Minnesota, described how
 the number of assaults
 against teachers doubled
 from 2014 to 2015 and
 called the situation a
 “public health crisis.”
Testifying before the U.S.
 Commission on Civil Rights,
 a former Philadelphia
teacher said that a student
told him, “I’m going to torture
 you. I’m doing this because
 I can’t be removed.” Eden’s
report cites similar school
horror stories in other cities.
Since most of the school
violence and discipline
problems rest with black
students, there are a few
questions that black parents,
 politicians, academics, and
 civil rights advocates should
 ponder.
Is academic achievement
 among blacks so high that
 black people can afford to
 allow miscreants and thugs
to sabotage the education
 process?
For those pushing the
Obama administration’s
 harebrained restorative
 justice policy, can blacks
 afford for anything to
 interfere with the acquisition
 of academic excellence?
Finally, how does the Obama
 restorative justice policy
differ from a Ku Klux Klan
 policy that would seek to
 sabotage black education
 by making it impossible for
 schools to rid themselves
of students who make
education impossible for
 everyone else?