It's tough to be a black boy in Nashville, Tenn.

Nine middle schools there have suspended half of their black male students at some point, more often than any other group.

One school suspended 58 percent of its black male students, but just 10 percent of its white male students. Another suspended 58 percent of black boys but only 13 percent of white boys.

On the elementary school level, six schools suspended only black males, even though four of those schools have a mixed black and white population. In Tennessee, black kids are four times more likely to be suspended than other students.

And the problem is not unique to Nashville. Nationally, black kids are suspended three times more often than whites.

"That's a terrible track record," attorney Larry Woods, who is suing the school system over inadequate textbooks and resources, told WSMV-TV in Nashville. "I think the entire community's going to be shocked and surprised at these numbers. ... These aren't the occasional bad kid or bad seed; they're suspending more than half [of] their minority students."

The numbers are alarming and speak of the racial bias that black males face from an early age. I'm sure some of the suspensions were justified, but the disparity shows that something is wrong. It's impossible for black boys to cause all the problems at a school that is racially mixed.

The treatment some black males receive in school only conditions them to future stigmatization and negative behaviors. The practice of treating black male students more harshly for behavioral problems is the first step for the school-to-prison pipeline, the trend of dealing with our children as criminals as opposed to the still-developing, potential-filled young people that they are.




These students are being treated like criminals at an early age. Black students are more likely to be arrested for acting out in class. There is less tolerance for activities that would have been dealt with in-house a generation ago. It is akin to the way in which black males are sometimes judged more harshly when it comes to the criminal justice system and job opportunities.

Suspending these children from school denies them the opportunity to be educated. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) postulates that the treatment of minority students may be related to the school system's increased emphasis on standardized testing.

The ACLU writes:

As a result of test-based accountability regimes such as the No Child Left Behind Act, schools have an incentive to push out low-performing students to boost overall test scores. One study found that schools meted out longer suspensions to students who performed poorly on standardized tests than to high-performing students for similar offenses. This "punishment gap" grew substantially during the period of time when standardized tests were administered, indicating that schools may use "selective discipline" to keep low-performing students out of school during testing days.

Nashville school administrators say the numbers are unacceptable.

"The numbers are still higher than we would like, clearly," Paul Changas of Nashville Metro Schools told WSMV-TV.

In an effort to reduce the numbers of suspended students in Nashville, students who are suspended are being sent to twilight schools, which are run from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. These programs are supposed to give kids a chance to learn in an alternative environment.

This year, suspensions of black boys are down 25 percent in the Nashville school district and 50 percent at some of the offending schools.

However, as the ACLU points out, alternative programs are not the answer either because their standards are often not the same. The ACLU writes:

In a growing number of jurisdictions, struggling students are sent involuntarily to disciplinary alternative schools. These alternative schools -- sometimes run by private, for-profit companies -- are not subject to traditional school accountability standards (such as minimum hours and curriculum requirements), and frequently fail to provide meaningful educational services to the students who need them the most. Some lack even the basics, such as teachers and textbooks, and many do not offer high school diplomas upon graduation.

Woods also has valid concerns about Nashville's use of alternative schools.

"The problem with some of these alternatives, like twilight school, is once you take children out of their regular curriculum and regular classes, you're on a slippery downhill slope," he said. "These are the kids who are going to be the dropouts. These are the kids who are not going to be able to find a job. These are the kids we're failing.

"Now, I don't mean to say some kids don't deserve discipline. Of course they do at times," Woods added. "But to do this kind of massive disruption of particular groups in our entire school system and not to realize, 'hey, maybe we're doing something wrong here,' there's no excuse for that," he told WSMV-TV.

Teachers must learn to deal with students equally. They must also seek to understand why a student is acting out. Immediate suspension is not always the answer. Zero-tolerance policies are counterproductive.

In some more wealthy districts, a child with behavioral problems might be sent for special counseling. Sometimes home troubles or learning disabilities can be the spark for a student to act out. Black parents also need to take a more active role in educating their children.Your job does not end with just feeding, clothing and sending a child to school. Children need to be helped with their homework and held accountable for studying and their grades.

Teachers and administrators get paid to find ways to help students be the best that they can be. They can't do that if entire groups are sitting at home.