The Huntsville City Schools paid a former Federal Bureau of Investigations agent $157,000 last year. This salary is probably more than any school teacher made in the district that year, but more importantly, the program ran by the agent resulted in more than 600 Huntsville City School students’ social media presence being monitored. Additionally, the social media monitoring resulted in 14 expulsions from the school system, 12 of whom were black. Unfortunately, this disturbing story from my hometown’s school system isn’t that out of the ordinary in terms of disproportionate punishment.
On the whole, 86 percent of those expelled for social media last year from the Huntsville City School System were black, even though the system as a whole is only 40 percent black. Additionally, 78 percent of all students overall that were expelled were black. According to the Department of Education, black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times higher than white students.
These unequal punishments start early. Black children represent 18 percent of preschool enrollment, but they also represent 48 percent of preschool children getting more than one out-of-school suspension. In comparison, white children represent 43 percent of preschool enrollment but only 26 percent of preschool children getting more than one out-of-school suspension.
The disproportionate punishments extend to the schools referring students to the police and juvenile courts. Black students, despite only representing 16 percent of enrolled students, account for 27 percent of all students referred to law enforcement and 31 percent of students subject to school-related arrest. So the disproportionate punishments really do nothing but fuel the disproportionate prison and juvenile court populations in this country.
Some will say this can be explained away by looking at socioeconomic factors or the fact that certain races commit crimes more than others. However, the surveys and academic literature written on the subject does not show that is true. Instead, they support the idea that there are extra legal factors in play that affect the way black and other students of color are treated. Students of color tend to get punished more for the same offense than their white counterparts.
The Huntsville City Schools spying on their students is extremely problematic for a number of reasons. However, the outcome being heavy-handed towards black students is really par for the course in the American education system. Until we confront and correct the implicit racial biases that we as a society have towards individuals of color, it might be time to actually look at the punishments we are giving out in schools and seeing if they’re fair across color lines. If we don’t, then we are setting up many more students of color than we should to go from school to prison.
Matthew Bailey is a third-year law student. His column runs biweekly.
