Black Preschoolers Are Getting Suspended in Epic Numbers. In Other News, Preschoolers Get Suspended?

Zero
tolerance has arrived in the pre-K set, and it’s just as ugly
in miniature.

Data to be released Friday by the Education Department’s civil
rights arm finds that black children represent about 18 percent of
children enrolled in preschool programs in schools, but almost half
of the students suspended more than once. Six percent of the
nation’s districts with preschools reported suspending at least one
preschool child.

Those trends set kids up nicely to funnel straight into the
school-to-prison pipeline awaiting them in middle and high school.
As Scott Shackford
noted in a blog post about new “guiding principles” on discipline
from the Obama administration, “One study found that 95 percent
of out-of-school suspensions were for nonviolent, minor disruptions
such as tardiness or disrespect.” In other words, administrators
are using discretionary, catch-all chanrges to boot kids out of
school, especially black girls and boys:

Overall, the data shows that black students of all ages are
suspended and expelled at a rate that’s three times higher than
that of white children. Even as boys receive more than two-thirds
of suspensions, black girls are suspended at higher rates than
girls of any other race or most boys. 

Stay tuned for the inevitable suspension of a preschooler for
parroting parental profanity that they don’t understand in 4, 3, 2,
1…