School Suspensions Skyrocket for Black and Latino Students
Naima Ramos-Chapman | September 30, 2010

A new study by the Southern Poverty Law Center has found that school suspensions of black and Latino students are skyrocketing. The trend, according to researchers, has been triggered by zero tolerance policies set in motion in the 1970’s, and exacerbated by hysteria over youth crime in the decades-long fallout after the Columbine High School shootings.

Triggered by zero-tolerance school policies initiated in the 1970’s and exacerbated after the Columbine shootings, out-of-school suspension rates for Black and Latino children are skyrocketing, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s newly released suspension study using 18 of the nation’s largest school systems.

Over at The Root, Nsenga Burton writes about the dangerous problems that arise for penalized kids who are left with too much time on their hands: (Read full article)