The Nation - News from Dec. 12, 1988

Black students, composing 16% of the nation’s public school students, are twice as likely as whites to be suspended from school, physically punished by school authorities or labeled mentally retarded, a new study said. At the same time, only 8% of youngsters in programs for gifted students are black, according to a report issued by the Boston-based National Coalition of Advocates for Students. The study gives evidence of “the failure of schools to be peopled by adults who are skilled in handling students who are different in any sort of way,” said Joan McCarty First, executive director of the coalition consisting of 21 student advocacy groups across the country. First said the results do not mean that blacks and other minority students are breaking school rules more often than whites. Instead, “teachers tend to react out of their frustration and irritation,” she said. Overall, male students account for 80% of corporal punishment incidents and 70% of suspensions, the study found.