“Racial equity” has become the all-purpose justification for dubious educational policies. Equity proponents view “disparate impact”—when the same policies yield different outcomes among demographic groups—as conclusive proof of discrimination. On the education front, “equity” does not seek equal treatment for all students. Instead, it demands statistical equivalence in discipline referrals and suspensions for students of every racial group, regardless of those students’ actual conduct. — from the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.
A riot broke out at Madison East High School during the lunch period late last September. The fighting was so intense it broke out onto busy East Washington Ave.
The police officer assigned to the school intervened but the mass melee broke into smaller tussles, then quickly coalesced into another free-for all. For a good 30 minutes the fighting continued. So many police responded — 11 more — that police radio traffic throughout the city had to be restricted to emergencies, only. The fracas was quelled only after “numerous citations” and one arrest.
School discipline is no longer about kids passing notes in class.
A 2016 U.S. Department of Education survey reported that 13.7% of Wisconsin teachers were threatened during the 2011-2012 school year, the third highest rate in nation that year. The same school year, 11.3% of Wisconsin teachers were physically assaulted, the nation’s highest rate.
Undeterred, Madison’s noisy social justice activists want police out of schools (also called Educational Resource Officers, or EROs). Agitators like Freedom Inc., Progressive Dane, Socialist Alternative, and other members of the Black Lives Matter movement decry what they call the school-to-prison pipeline. In so doing, they perpetuate the misbegotten lesson of Ferguson: that police, not crime, is the problem. A receptive Madison school board is listening to them, partly because no one else is speaking.
A school board committee is in the home stretch of kicking police out of Madison’s four high schools. It next meets at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21 at school district hdq, 545 W Dayton St.
Tell the School Board you support police in schools.
At bottom, the Madison school board fears the race card.
“When a disproportionate amount of students of color in Madison school district are struggling, school board member Dean Loumos said it is imperative to analyze practices through a racial equity lens.”
Freedom Inc. pickets Madison school headquarters, complete with bullhorns
Like so many, Loumos mistakingly ascribes nefarious causation to undesirable outcomes. True, the famous 2013 Race to Equity report found that schools in Dane County are 15 times more likely to suspend a black student than a white student. But nowhere does the report blame racial discrimination. (In fact, the word “discrimination” is found only once in the lengthy document.) For the Left, everything is identity politics.
Stanford University’s Stanford University’s Thomas Sowell wrote in September 2016:
A big “favor” the Obama administration is offering blacks today is exemption from school behavior rules that have led to a rate of disciplining of black male students that is greater than the rate of disciplining of other categories of students.
Is it impossible that black males misbehave in school more often than Asian females? Or Jewish students? Or others?
Is the only possible reason for the disparities in disciplining rates that the teachers and principals are discriminating against black males? Even when many of these teachers and principals in black neighborhoods are themselves black? But Washington politicians are on the case. It strengthens the political vision that blacks are besieged by racist enemies, from which Democrats are their only protection.
The soft bigotry of low expectations
Creating a separate but unequal standard of conduct hurts at-risk students more than helps them. “They give black youngsters exemptions from behavioral standards,” Sowell warns.
In the Obama administration, “Misguided federal agencies … made it clear that schools with a record of racial or ethnic disparities in disciplinary data could face a federal investigation. Many schools simply stopped expulsions and suspensions.” says Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt, a former teacher. “Negative behavior without consequences promotes more negative behavior.”
The Republican from Fond du Lac proposes Assembly Bill 693, the Teacher’s Protection Act, to allow teachers to demand student suspensions and require principals to report violent students to police.
Zulma Franco, East High ERO
No one ever talks about the victims of chaos in our schools: students who want to learn, teachers who want to teach. “For both students and teachers, victimization at school can have lasting effects [including] truancy,” the authors of the Education Department crime and safety study.
Between 1999 and 2015 more schools added security guards or assigned police officers (from 54% to 70%). At roughly the same time, the federal Education Department found, fewer students age 12 to 18 were victimized by homicide, weapons, drugs, theft, fighting, bullying, etc.
Police are not busting heads
MPD’s quarterly report from its Office of Professional Standards and Internal Affairs records this:
An email was sent by a school employee with recognition for an officer. The email stated she has worked with the officer for several years and has been very impressed with her ability to work with the students even when they are highly agitated. The officer’s approach to one student recently was very calm, reassuring, compassionate and very professional. The officer’s support encouraged the student to go through a very sensitive medical exam later in the week that was necessary for the case. The email continued by stating that they are grateful that the officer is with their school supporting their students.
For what it’s worth, the Common Council’s $372,000 OIR police study concluded police in schools “develop constructive relationships, identify potential issues, and do informal restorative justice programs.”
Tell Rep. Thiesfeldt you support AB 693.
Platinum Subscriber Bonus — Reporter Dan O’Donnell discusses “Blood on the Blackboard.”
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
So Dave, you’ve written twice now about this move to remove the EROs. What say the people most affected by this (after the students): the teachers? Don’t they have an organized voice anymore? What do they think of this idea?
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Doubtless they do on an individual basis but the groupthink and the school board makes sure it does not speak. Wouldn’t be politically correct. You would call them racist.
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You are so obsessed with, and thin skinned about, racism. I wonder why that is.
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Because we get really tired of being called racists when we really aren’t, Bob-o
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@AnonyBob;
You want raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacism?
Howse about Bill “Three Strikes” Clinton and his “Superpredators […] need to be brought to heel wife Hillarity?
The Gotch
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My wife was a sub teacher in one of Madison’s “disadvantaged” schools the other day. The teacher she was working with who had been at the school for quite a few many years says it has gone downhill especially the last few years. My wife said that the students were not gathering around the teacher to learn, were climbing around on the desks/furniture, constant disruptions and when she tried to reprimand one of the kids when a locker door was slammed, the kid got in her face and pretty much yelled “how dare you tell me what to do!!!”
The age of the students????
Kindergarten
Madison is so screwed.
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Sad statement, and I wonder how kids who don’t succumb to delinquency manage to learn in this type of environment. Madison is not alone . . .I fear that lack of solid parenting is apparent even in the suburbs.
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Great post and argument for keeping cops in schools, David. It’s a sad statement that we even need police presence in schools, but taking them out at this point would be irresponsible. And what about the kids who want to learn and make something of themselves? Don’t they matter?
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Here is the URL to an illuminating and terribly disturbing article relevant to Blaska’s post that I borrowed from Paula Fitz’ blogsite. Was written in the winter of 2017 about St.Paul schools.
Here are the first two paragraphs from the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal article, “No Thug Left Behind.”
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This is just excellent. Sending to all school board members now!
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I wonder if the 13-year-old girl who carjacked a middle-aged woman a couple of days ago in Madison and then told police she’d “f***ing do it again” is a product of this city’s “progressive” schools. It’s not hard to find examples of liberals’ loony social(ist) policies backfiring, but their education policies top the list.
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I suggest we get ready and build more prisons now. We are going to need them.
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Had Hillary won you’d have BLM in every school explaining White Privilege while demonstrating Black Privilege. Boys would be in the girls bathroom at will and no male would be considered innocent until proven guilty of sexual assault.
Every police force would be Fergusoned and on the way to Chicago/Baltimore.
Every school would be Mizzou.
I’m beginning to hate Barack Obama.
I use the word rarely.
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@madisonexpat;
“I’m beginning to hate Barack Obama.”
Don’t let Hope-n-Change, or any of his slobbering supporters, get wind of that.
The latter will call you a raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacist!
You may have the rare, good fortune of being spared the wrath of he former.
During the fast-approaching midterms, he’ll be desperately seeking relevance; occupied with mounting a feebly flaccid attack consisting of a formidable volley of incoming hashtags and a devastatingly destructive array of personal pronouns.
The Gotch
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I have been called a RAY-cist on this blog. Got the t-shirt. It was a foul slander and did not turn out well for my accuser. Haven’t heard it since.
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Whaddya think Lefty’s reaction would be to HS students (or a bunch of dumb @$$ country f***s, in Lefty’s parlance) from Marinette, Marshfield, Mucoda, Mondovi, Medford, or Hurley getting into a East High type fracas, or (to be geographically/culturally accurate) rassle?
The Gotch
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So what was the cause of this incident? After 4 months there has to be a follow up report somewhere.
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I have an open records request pending.
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Good luck with that. Would like to see it.
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ABob,
Previously you stated that every racist is a Republican. How big a surprise is that gonna be when you break it to Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan?
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@madisonexpat;
On the subject of the talented and erstwhile photogenic Mr. Farrakhan:
“The Photo That Never Saw The Light of Day: Obama With Farrakhan In 2005″
”(Photographer Askia) Muhammad said a ‘staff member’ for the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) contacted him ‘sort of in a panic’ after he took the photo at a caucus meeting in 2005. TPM has published the photo above with Muhammad’s permission.
“(I) gave the picture up at the time and basically swore secrecy.
“But after the nomination was secured and all the way up until the inauguration; then for eight years after he was President, it was kept under cover.
”Asked whether he thought the photo’s release would have affected Obama’s presidential campaign, Muhammad said, ‘I insist. It absolutely would have made a difference.’ ” (bolds mine)
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/photo-of-obama-louis-farrakhan-to-be-released
Think the same thing coulda happened to the what have to be numerous cell phone videos of Michael Brown charging Ferguson LE officer Darren Wilson?
Nah, it’s SO unlike Lefty to suppress damning information, like perverted scum bag “Spiritual Consultants.”
The Gotch
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I believe I said not all Republicans are racist, but racists have a home in the Republican Party. See: white nationalists and neo-Nazis gleeful over Trump’s acceptance of them. See: Trump’s willful ignorance – “Who’s David Duke?” See: etc., etc.
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Okay ABob; following your thought pattern, fascists have a home in the Dem party.
Study up on Antifa to understand my assertion.
Which extremist group is currently more active and doing more damage?
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bat:
Fascist=Antifa? What you been smoking??
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You’re not making much sense there, Batman. You do realize Antifa is shorthand for AntiFascist, right?
As for ‘Splat, Itchy and the others getting the vapors over being labelled racist: then quit defending and standing with a president who is so openly and blatently racist. Or do you, too, think “there were fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville?
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AnonyBob,
You previously refused to define “racism” for me. As I suspected, you can’t, and even if you could, you would not, <because you support RACE-based allocation of civil rights and economic rights. Purge yourself of RACISM by explaining to us HOW-WHY some people can spear fish, but other citizens cannot. Explain why whites cannot open or run a casino in Wisconsin, but others, who in violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, can.
Blood Quantum is THE racial system that Liberals and the Tribes still justify. You are in no position to lecture anyone about Wascism.
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@AnonyBob;
EVIL White hate groups? Another beautiful Lefty theory slain by ugly facts.
From another blog I follow (bolds mine throughout):
The Poynter Institute, the go-to journalism think-tank, just published an article asking whether news organizations should assign reporters to the “white supremacy beat.”
Journalists almost always cite the Southern Poverty Law Center when it comes to assessing how much “hate” is in America. There are major problems with using the SPLC (it being overrun by victim-mongering Lefties & all) , but let’s play along.
A perfunctory dive into the SPLC’s “hate groups” lists show the fastest-growing hate group segment is…black nationalists.
According to the SPLC, Nazi groups have diminished, from 142 in 2014 to 99 in 2016, the most recent data available. From 2014-2016, the only group that grew each year was black nationalists. There were 72 KKK groups identified in 2014, which jumped to 190 in 2015, and then dipped down to 130 in 2016.
The black nationalist groups went from 113 to 180, to currently 193.
Let me put a fine line around this data:
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the media’s favorite arbiter of hate in America, there are currently almost twice as many black nationalist hate groups (193) as there are Nazi groups (99).
Let me say that again: for all the furor (sorry) over Nazis, there are twice as many black nationalist hate groups defined by the SPLC — and Black Lives Matter is NOT included in that group.
If you combine all the SPLC’s white-specific hate groups on this year’s “hate map,” you’ll get 450. Even if you include all the listed hate groups, including those that don’t specifically mention race, such as organizations listed because of their traditional Christian beliefs about gay marriage, of the 917 “hate groups” listed, if black groups make up nearly 200 of those, that’s still way out of whack with their 12-13 percent population (black groups making up 21 percent of all hate groups — and this is using every hate group besides black hate groups, according to the SPLC).
So if you take population into consideration, since whites are 77 percent of the US population, and blacks are just 12-13 percent, it’s a fact that, according to the SPLC, blacks are far more likely to join a hate group than whites.
This correlates with the ADL, which has published several studies finding blacks are far more likely to engage in antisemitism than whites. So are Hispanics.
I’m always skeptical of these statistics, because they aren’t based on convictions, but on subjective data. And, of course, we’ve seen literally dozens of instances of hate hoaxes.
Of course, there are always fringe idiots who do idiotic things. But how big a threat are Nazis, anyway? If we go by the media’s darling, the SPLC, the black groups are a faster-growing, and much bigger threat.
The narrative is complete bullshit. And it’s fairly easy to refute.
Per the SPLC’s “hate list,” black nationalists were also the biggest growing segment of hate groups from 2005-2015. So both long-term and in the past few years, the black hate groups have been the biggest gainers.
Ah Lefty; so MUCH hypocrisy, so little time!
The Gotch
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“HOW-WHY some people can spear fish, but other citizens cannot.”
That is easy. There is an enforceable treaty with the Chippewa Nation.
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Paine in the…
You’re still hung up on the Native Americans’ rights to natural resources, as granted by treaty with the U.S. govt? That train left the station long ago. I hope you weren’t one of the guys at the boat landings screaming, “Timber (n-word).”
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You cannot distance yourself from institutional racism. Tribal government is RACIST government, by blood quantum. How difficult is that for you to understand? Tribal rights are or are not defined by blood quantum, as are all derivative rights for “tribes.”
Casino operations are limited to one race only. That is pure racism that Liberals refuse to acknowledge, just as they ignored Bill Clinton’s sexual crimes, Margaret Sanger’s eugenics, and the misogyny of Black rappers…. http://blog.classyblacklady.com/2010/12/black-rappers-vs-black-women-5-specific.html
Bob, you’re just a Liberal racist “denier” who reminds his Cap Times friends, “my best friends live on the South Side.”
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The tribes are political entities, not racial groups. They’re sovereign nations.
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ABob is comforted to think our president is racist and colluding with Putin and any number of silly assertions. Why is that? Its been all Margaret Dumont for over a year which is as fun as it is predictable. President Trump said their were good people on both sides of the issue of Confederate memorials. I know from personal experience that is a true statement.
Antifa is the Brown shirt stage of Fascism. What’s in a name if they call themselves Anti Fascist? The Norks call themselves the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. Does that mean they are Democrats? Of course not. Know how to tell the difference?
We can’t vote the Norks out of power.
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Oh, I’m hardly comforted by such assertions.
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Then why have them? They are destructive to you. The chaotic, fearful bedwetters want you to be as unhappy as they are. Choose.
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Because it’s true Trump IS a racist and there is evidence the collusion is probably true, too. At the very least he’s laundered money for Russian oligarchs (sayeth Bannon, his supporter) in addition to being a shameless liar and cheat. He equated the side wearing swastikas with the side protesting swastikas. I choose not to hide my head in the sand when it comes to our president’s character deficiencies. That’s what I choose, not because it’s destructive to me, but because he’s destructive to our country.
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Abob&baldy,
You do realize we know when you are trolling.
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Go back to the very first comment. I asked what teachers thought about removing the EROs, the subject of the post. Splat immediately goes to racism, touchy about it as always. Others pile on. A few level-headed souls try to get back to education and schools. The wackos on racism won’t let it go. Who’s trolling whom?
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YOU took everything to racism because you project your own hatred. I take you there because YOU and the rest of Hillary supporters found it more useful than saying “shut up”. As Samantha Bee adroitly summed up Hillary’s message as ‘hey f##k face, vote for me or you’re a racist’.
It is your bed so lie in it while quivering like an airedale hearing imaginary dog whistles.
RAY-cism.
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Ha ! What does your nonsense constitute, eh bat??
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You’re losing it bro…
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Abob,
You trolled me by claiming I did not know that Antifa stands for anti-fascist. Antifa comforts itself knowing stupid people will assume they must be what their name says.
Baldy,
Asserting I must be stoned to equate Antifa with a fascist organization. I presume baldy cannot possibly be so ignorant not to understand that Antifa behaves exactly like fascists do and historically have. If baldy is not a complete imbecile than he must be trolling. Or, well, perhaps I am mistaken about the trolling part.
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You still don’t seem to get that Antifa protests against fascists and the hard right, like the ones wearing swastikas in Charlottesville. Like the ones marching at night with torches chanting “Blood and soil.” So, no, I don’t think I was trolling you. But just to be clear, I’m not a fan; I’m not going to defend anyone who commits violence and hides their face while protesting, whether it’s under a white sheet, a Guy Fawkes mask or a black bandana.
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You are cherry picking Abob,
Check out the Antifa response to Milo Y. attempting to speak at UC-Berkeley.
That is one example of MANY, exposing Antifa as not an antifascist organization.
And btw; Antifa doesn’t protest as you say but instead they beat the crap out of people, break windows, burn cars/bldgs., pepper spray people in the face, attack cops, and squelch free speech.
I accept your statement of not trolling me, and that you were trying to correct me from a place of genuine ignorance.
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Bob:
Don’t take any of this name-calling seriously. batgirl et al call anyone that disagrees with their nonsense “trolls”, yet they really have nothing to say. What makes us “trolls” (by whatever definition du jour they pose), yet they aren’t? Sooo many hypocrites, sooo little time..
Keep up the good work.
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@hankdog/old baldy;
”Keep up the good work.”
Where’ve I read that before?
@hankdog(old baldy) Sep 23, 2016 8:18am to the thankfully short-lived (courtesy of The Gotch!), completely dipsh*tted, monumentally addlepated, Sybil Gotchberg host.madison.com commenting account:
“Welcome to the discussion. We all are interested in your well-reasoned, insightful and concise statements on issues of interest to all of us.”
‘Nuf said!
The Gotch
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Batman’s not as bad as the rest (sorry if this hurts your cred, BM). He’s one of them, but at least he’s open to hearing other points of view before swatting them down. There’s been some confusion on the definition of terms.
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I suggest you get information from sources beyond the FOX Propaganda Network. Even Wikipedia will give you a more balanced explanation and recent history of Antifa. There is a (small) bad element in the Antifa movement, but I don’t think it defines it.
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Abob,
Wikipedia can no longer be trusted to be fair, just like facebook, twitter, and google. But aside from that; are you really unaware of Antifa’s antics the past year? That “(small) bad element” has been doing some very serious damage to an awful lot of people, property, and free speech. Stop making excuses for them.
At this point I genuinely am wondering if you are trolling because your ignorance (nodisrespectintended) is hard to believe.
BTW; the MSM is much more slanted than FoxNews. Make your own comparison and get back to me.
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I was listening until you said the MSM is more slanted than FOX. Even FOX has never claimed that. Seriously, they have a very goofy take on reality.
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old baldy says:
bat:
Fascist=Antifa? What you been smoking??
Batman replies:
Baldy,
Asserting I must be stoned to equate Antifa with a fascist organization. I presume baldy cannot possibly be so ignorant not to understand that Antifa behaves exactly like fascists do and historically have. If baldy is not a complete imbecile than he must be trolling. Or, well, perhaps I am mistaken about the trolling part.
I am connecting the dots for you because I am compassionate towards the elderly.
Do a little background check on Antifa if you do not believe they behave exactly like fascist thugs do.
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