NEWS: Blacks, Hispanics suspended at higher rates in RI

Participants at a news conference Wednesday discussing the ACLU report on school discipline. Photo by Steve Klamkin WPRO News

By Steve Klamkin WPRO News and The Associated Press

A report by the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union finds black and Hispanic students are much more likely than white students to be suspended at the state's public schools.

The report released Wednesday examines data collected by the Rhode Island Department of Education between 2004 and 2012.

"At this point, we can conclude that black and Hispanic students are at higher risk of being suspended from school, for whatever reason," said Hillary Davis, policy associated for the ACLU of Rhode Island. "And, I think we have to look long and hard at why that is."

The study finds the disparities are even greater in elementary schools. According to the report, a black student was six times more likely to be suspended as a white student, and a Hispanic student was three times more likely to be suspended.

"I think this report reveals how the patterns of profiling, humiliation, demoralization and criminalization of students of color starts at a really early age," said Dr. Dannie Ritchie, Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Brown University.

"Clearly what we have here is a very serious problem that's leading these black and Hispanic students much farther along the school to prison pipeline than it is to students of other races, and that raises a number of very serious concerns," said the ACLU's Davis.

The state's public defender, Mary McElroy said that school systems must devote money and other resources to alternatives to school suspensions.

"We have to put the money there," McElroy said. "We can sit here all day long and talk about, 'well wait a minute, the schools don't have the money'. We certainly have the money to build prisons in this country and we have the money to lots of other things. So, we need to have the money to educate our children, and to educate all of the children, and to do it properly."

Education Commissioner Deborah Gist says in a statement that she's concerned by the report and plans to discuss it with school leaders. She says she believes suspensions are an unproductive way to deal with many discipline issues.