Black Pupils Get Brunt of Discipline : School Punishment Is Disproportionate, Official Concedes

Black students attending Los Angeles district schools are more likely to be expelled or suspended than are their Latino, Anglo and Asian peers, according to statistics released last week by the school district.

The district compiled the punishment figures in response to complaints by school board members and civil rights groups that the harshest punishments have fallen disproportionately on minority students.

The report showed that black and Latino males were involved in the majority of disciplinary cases. Expressed in terms of percentage of enrollment, however, Latinos were less likely to be expelled or suspended than either blacks or Anglos.

“The data does show disparities between minority youngsters and Anglo youngsters,” Sidney A. Thompson, the associate superintendent in charge of school operations said in an interview Friday. “We need to review our policies region-by-region, school-by-school to make sure that discipline is being dispensed equally.”

NAACP Position

Raymond Johnson Jr., president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said the district’s findings proved what his organization has been saying for years--minority students receive harsher punishment than white students.

“In certain black and Latino schools, administrators want to set an example and many times to set that example they overreact to a situation.” Johnson said. “In most cases, the solution to the problem is a lesser disciplinary action than the one that is given.”

The district data show that for the 1984-85 school year blacks accounted for 39% of all students expelled and 37% of all students suspended. Only 20% of the 560,264 students enrolled in the district last year were black.

Latinos, who accounted for 52% of the district’s student population last year, made up 33% of the students expelled and 40% of those suspended.

Ratios for Whites

Whites, who made up almost 20% the district enrollment, accounted for 24% of the expulsions and 19% of the suspensions.

Asians, who accounted for 8% of the district enrollment, had a 3% share of expulsions and 2.5% of suspensions.

The large majority of those expelled from school were high school students--69.2%. The numbers were nearly reversed when it came to suspensions, however. Only 29.6% of the suspensions were high school students, with the remaining 70.4% being pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Disruptive or defiant behavior and threats that led to physical injury were cited most often as the reasons for suspensions, according to the report.

More than 62% of the expulsions were made because of possession of drugs. Possession of weapons accounted for 17% of the expulsion referrals.

Drugs, Weapons

Last spring, the school board approved policies for mandatory expulsion of students found in possession of drugs or weapons on school grounds and of students who physically assaulted a teacher.

“We believe the mandatory expulsion policy has made a difference,” Thompson, the associate superintendent, said. “In the weapons category, expulsion referral increased by 50% to 55%.”

Thompson added that the predominance of minority youths receiving disciplinary action reflects the pattern of economic conditions in the Los Angeles area.

“The most economically disenfranchised kids are black and the most disenfranchised blacks are young males. If you look at our data, the disciplinary actions reflect this,” Thompson said.