Are students suspended regularly at your school? Do you think they deserved it? Are there more effective alternatives? Explain using examples from your school.
Introduction
While suspension and expulsion may sometimes be necessary to maintain order and protect student and campus safety, did you ever think that some punishments don't fit the crime?
That is what UCLA researchers found in a study where California public schools issued over 700,000 suspensions last year alone. Many of the cases were of minor offenses like talking back to the teacher or class disruptions. And an overwhelming majority of the students who were suspended were either black or Latino.
There are 34 different “crimes” (called infractions) in California that warrant expulsion or suspension for students. They range from smoking, fighting, drug use, vulgarity, obscenity, defiance, possession of weapons and the list goes on. Some of these are relatively minor offenses and some are more serious. Schools have a variety of policies in place to determine these infractions. Some are clearer than others.
February is Black History Month. These resources from the PBS series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow take students on sweeping journey through a defining era in American history with personal narratives, excusive stories and engaging lessons.
PBS LearningMedia has 44 educational resources including video, audio, lesson plans and interactives from the series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. The PBS 4 part series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, recipient of the prestigious Peabody Award, chronicles a significant era in American history, 1865-1954.
Jim Crow was not a person, yet affected the lives of millions of people. Named after a popular 19th-century minstrel song that stereotyped African Americans, 'Jim Crow' came to personify the system of government-sanctioned racial oppression and segregation in the United States.
On Monday, Americans commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Most of us know at least a little something about the man: he was an African American civil rights leader; he gave the “I Have a Dream” speech; he was assassinated for his efforts … and we get a day off in his honor.
For most American youth, though, knowledge about Dr. King and civil rights history in general doesn’t go much beyond that. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that only 2 percent of high school seniors could correctly answer a basic question about the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education case (more about that later).
A recent study by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) examined public K-12 education standards and curriculum requirements in all 50 states and found that 35 states – including California – failed to cover many of the core concepts and details about the Civil Rights Movement. 16 of these states (Iowa and New Hampshire included) didn’t require any instruction about the movment at all.
“For too many students, their civil rights education boils down to two people and four words: Rosa Parks, Dr. King and ‘I have a dream.’”
“For too many students, their civil rights education boils down to two people and four words: Rosa Parks, Dr. King and ‘I have a dream,’” said Maureen Costello, director of SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance program, which conducted the study. “By having weak or non-existent standards for history, particularly for the Civil Rights Movement, (most states) are saying loud and clear that it isn’t something students need to learn.”
The study also found that much of what is taught about the movement in schools largely focuses on addressing the major leaders and events, but fails to address the systemic and often persistent issues like racism and economic injustice.
There's no doubt that Dr. King is recognized as one of our national heros. Major city boulevards throughout the country bear his name, and last year a memorial was dedicated to him on the National Mall in Washington. But, notes the SPLC report, these symbolic tributes fall short if the lessons and significance of his legacy aren't being properly taught to students.
So, how much do you know? Take the quiz to find out
For eighth-grader Roberta Stromas, the school playground had been a source of pain and anguish. On several occasions, her peers would not include her while hanging out, playing games or even sharing. This had all been attributed to the color of her skin. Roberta is African American and in the past her friends have had a problem with that.
"Racism really kind of stopped me from accomplishing my goals in life because it made me think about is this person going to judge me because I'm black? Is this person going to make assumptions about me because of the color of my skin? I kind of hide it that it don't affect me, but it's like when I get home it plays over and over in my head of what happened… I try to say to myself they're missing out, but I feel like I'm missing out on a friendship. "
In her film The Skin I'm In, Roberta meditates on her experiences with race in her friendships and how it affects her. She acts differently in front of her family, showing them that she is a happy girl, but inside she is angry and sad. Roberta comments on the strength of those who participated in the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party and how they have helped build a brighter future. But, racism still exists and at the end of the film, Roberta makes a call for action to end racism entirely.
Here's her film The Skin I'm In, also produced by Brianna Lyon, Zack Ledo, and Da'Shun Frelot.
This video was made in collaboration with KQED and San Francisco Peer Resources as part of Project VoiceScape, a partnership with Adobe Youth Voices, PBS, and POV that is aimed at encouraging middle and high school students nationwide to use digital media tools in creating compelling stories about issues and concerns important to them. At Lick Middle School, the students all picked different themes to explore like depression, immigration, graffiti, video game addiction, domestic violence, and race and discrimination. Students produced incredibly poignant films about social issues that personally affect them. Through this personal lens, these films aim to express issues subjectively and do not attempt to hold any sort of objective journalistic integrity. These films also do not represent the opinions of any of the partnering organizations.
KQED Education also worked with students from Philip and Sala Burton High School. All of the work was done in collaboration with the San Francisco Ed Fund's Peer Resources program. At Burton, the students all picked the theme of college access as a focus for their films. The concept references financial struggles, immigration issues, lack of support, fears and anxieties.
Do Now is a weekly activity for students to respond to current issues through the use KQED's award-winning online media resources and social media tools like Twitter.
