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Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Parents to be informed on new discipline policy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Gwinnett branch of the NAACP has planned a Sunday get-together, and no — it’s not a gathering to honor embattled Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick.
It’s a “Back to School” event, being held to inform and educate parents, students and teachers on some timely topics.
The first one deals with the new disciplinary code for Gwinnett schools. The school system has made changes to its student conduct rules because records showed that a disproportionate percentage of minority students were the ones who faced expulsion.
Last year, about 68 percent of 2,218 Gwinnett students who appeared before district-level discipline panels were black or Hispanic, according to school district records. Yet black or Hispanic students made up about 44 percent of the district’s enrollment at the time.
Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks wisely put together a task force to look into the matter. That 49-member group included some local NAACP members. The net result of the panel’s work is a uniform disciplinary code that clarifies rules and procedures. It also lessens the chance that prejudices or racism will creep in when punishment is meted out.
“We believe that the work done by Dr. James Taylor [executive director of academic support for Gwinnett public schools] and the committee is really good and a step forward for students and teachers,” said Jennifer Falk of Duluth, who chairs the local NAACP’s education arm. “It’s early in the [school] year; we want to get the information out. Hopefully, there won’t be as much turmoil during the course of the school year. That doesn’t need to happen.”
The second forum topic deals with an issue I wrote about in July — the 2007 youth health survey conducted by the nonprofit Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services. More than 30,000 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders answered questions about sex, alcohol, drugs and violence. Results show high-risk behavior is on the rise among students of middle school and high school age.
Related link: Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services 2007 Youth Survey (PDF)
Ellen Gerstein, who oversees the coalition, told me that parents, generally, suffered from the “it’s not my child” syndrome. She expressed dismay that so few parents, as groups or individuals, had contacted her office to request a presentation or just to talk about the survey results. Gerstein’s concern compelled the NAACP to make her a forum panelist. “It’s a natural link to have her come,” Falk told me. “I thought the information was important.” So is the general idea for the forum.
See, this is an event that reaches deeper than Mr. Vick, who has been suspended from NFL play and lost lucrative endorsement contracts because he faces allegations of dog fighting. He’s a sports celebrity with bags of money to hire an ace legal team. He doesn’t need a human rights organization to rally people on his behalf, as about 200 fans did on July 29 at the Georgia Dome. He doesn’t need the NAACP Atlanta chapter to ask the media and public to withhold judgment and cease vilification. And he’s done nothing to be honored, as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference had pledged to do last week at its 49th annual convention in Atlanta, before rightly nixing the idea. Vick definitely deserves due process.
Not a public defender, caretaker or watchdog.
Yet so many kids do. The Gwinnett NAACP and its leadership know this. It recognizes the need to teach our children, all children — to serve them and combat ills that conflict them — since its reactivation in 2004 by the late Rev. John Stewart Jr.
And from college tours to youth summits to blood drives and education forums, it has done so humbly, outside the glare of the spotlight.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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