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Saturday, August 30, 2008
Ruckus over race a sorry distraction
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I know an educator who takes to heart this proverb: “When the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”
These days, it’s apropos in Gwinnett County. An unfortunate turn of events pits the local school superintendent against the president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, among others.
Last Saturday, I wrote a column about a workshop in which an administrator gave a discipline report to school officials. The report gave racial breakdowns as they relate to the number of discipline hearings during the 2006-07 school year. It showed that black students racked up half of such hearings even though they make up less than a third of the student body.
James Taylor, who oversees discipline for Gwinnett schools, said during the meeting that disproportionate discipline of minority students is a problem for school systems everywhere in the country except Idaho.
According to news reports, Superintendent Alvin J. Wilbanks then asked:
“Do they have any blacks in Idaho?”
On Monday, Gwinnett NAACP branch president Jorge “J.P.” Portalatin met with Wilbanks. He said later that Wilbanks had refused to apologize for his comment, which Portalatin and others say seemed to put the blame for the disparity on black students. As Portalatin pointed out, the disparity could be explained just as easily by inconsistency in the application of punishment.
By Thursday, leaders of the Metro Association of Classroom Educators were picketing outside the school system’s administrative offices. One sign read: “Wilbanks Arrogant and Insensitive.”
Oh, the irony.
Wilbanks brought Taylor on board specifically to rid the system of ambiguities in discipline matters. He also had Taylor assemble a 49-person task force (which included NAACP reps, bus drivers, teachers, and students) to address the issue. Now he’s being attacked. At the very least, detractors want an apology, but some want him fired.
Wilbanks has said his comments were not meant to be racist or insensitive. Only he knows the truth. Fault him, if you must, for any host of perceived sins — thinking out loud, misspeaking, offering no apology, being culturally aloof.
He could of course squash the controversy by uttering two simple words: “I’m sorry.” But frankly, I fail to see the need. How can you hold a discussion about the disproportionate number of minority children who are disciplined without mentioning the race of the group you’re trying to help?
That’s beyond political correctness. It’s asinine.
And it blows my mind.
At a time when so many kids drop out of high school, commit crimes and can’t read, write and add, our community leaders get up in arms over much to-do about nothing. Plenty of educational causes are worth fighting for, but this isn’t one of them.
When the elephants fight, the grass may indeed suffer.
When adults fight, needlessly, our children suffer.
Rick Badie updates his Gwinnett blog Monday through Friday. His column appears on Saturdays in the print edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Readers may post comments online (www.ajc.com/gwinnett) or contact Badie directly. He may be reached at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
