Behind the Parkland shooter Rampage, Obama's School-Leniency Policy

[BmorePat87]

Obama didn't cause this. We have a very real problem in our schools backed by data that suggests that minority students, particularly black students, are given punishment more frequently and more severely for the same offenses that their other classmates commit. For example, my co-teacher (who holds an admin certification) will fill in for admins and help process referrals. She processed one where the same teacher wrote two girls up for the same offense on the same day. The white girl's parents were notified by the teacher and the offense was phrased in a more accidental way. The black girl's parents were not notified by the parent and the offense was phrased in a more deliberate way.

The Obama administration pushed jurisdictions to justify these discrepancies. Unfortunately, some jurisdictions decided to underreport or just not report problems instead of finding out why this inequality existed or training staff not to.

Restorative practices ("healing circles") are a great practice that many districts (mine included) are adopting. The idea is that, in addition to receiving a punishment, teachers, students, and other staff members engage in open conversations to help rehabilitate student offenders.

I know the idea of teaching students not to do bad things and helping them understand what is causing them to do it sounds like baloney, but it works.

Also, none of this would have prevented Broward from addressing the obvious concerns regarding Cruz.