The Greater Sacramento NAACP held a town hall meeting in McClatchy’s auditorium on Wednesday, September 12th to discuss a recent scientific report which found that African American boys were being suspended at alarmingly disproportionate rates compared to other students.
Several speakers spoke at the event. First, Principal Peter Lambert gave an opening speech in which he expressed concern over the suspension rates, and promised to “make sure that all students can be successful who walk through our doors.”
He was followed by SCUSD Superintendent Jorge Aguilar, who expressed similar concern with the issue, saying that race issues are “something we have avoided talking about for too long.”
Then, Betty Williams, president of the Greater Sacramento NAACP, talked about some of the research that had been done on the suspension disparity. She noted that, while suspensions have gone down in recent years, the disparity is still huge and there is still much that needs to be done. She then introduced Dr. Tyrone C. Howard and Dr. Luke Wood, two of the authors of the suspension report. They have worked with Black Minds Matter and the Black Male Institute to research the ways in which African American students, especially boys, receive far more punishments than whites.
A large chunk of the event was devoted to Dr. Howard and Dr. Wood giving a slide show presentation. This presentation was filled with charts, statistics, and anecdotes showing just how big this problem is.
For example, the overall suspension rate in California is 3.6%. However, for black males in California, it is 12.8%. For black males in Sacramento County, it is 19.5%.
The presentation talked about how this heightened risk of suspensions, expulsions, and other punishments can have negative effects on black students, leading to a “greater risk of dropping out,” a lower chance of going to college, limited career mobility, and “increased involvement with the criminal justice system.”
The doctors noted that while the majority of their research had been devoted to the situation of black males, black females were going through similar struggles.
They also discussed implicit bias, which they said was one of the largest contributors to this issue. The speakers defined implicit bias as being when people make stereotype-based assumptions about people without realizing it. They asserted that people in high-stress jobs who have to make decisions based on incomplete information, like police officers and teachers, are especially vulnerable to implicit bias.
After the slide show, there were a few more speakers, as well as a question and answer panel made up of Superintendent Aguilar, Drs Wood and Howard, and Jessie Ryan, President of the SCUSD Board of Directors.
Aguilar said during this section that his administration’s focus will be on “changing mindsets,” and that “we are not going to let financial issues get in the way of student’s needs.”