Activism

From Kindergarten to 12th Grade, Black Students Are Punished More Often UC Berkeley Researcher Says

By looking across many types of punishment, student subpopulations, measures of disparity, and comparison groups, the authors arrive at the conclusion that, as the article title states, “No matter how you slice it, Black students are punished more.” They also find that while disparities are widespread, they are larger in some contexts than one might expect.

Published

5 months ago

December 6, 2024

Oakland Post

Even one suspension can lead to long-range consequences like dropping out of school, says Sean Darling-Hammond, a UC Berkeley assistant professor of Community Health Science. Photo courtesy UC Berkley News.

UC Berkeley News
Special to The Post

Every year, millions of students are suspended, expelled, and punished.

The American Academy of Pediatricians recently warned that these exclusionary punishments can be incredibly harmful. But are students of certain backgrounds experiencing the harms of exclusion more often?

In a paper published on Nov. 25 in “American Educational Research Association Open,” Sean Darling-Hammond, a UC Berkeley assistant professor in Community Health Science, and Eric Ho, a statistician at the U.S. Department of Education, lay out the case that Black students across the country in K-12 education are experiencing scholastic punishment far more often than their peers.

The authors wrote, “Relative to white students, Black students were 3.6 times more likely to have been suspended out of school, 2.5 times more likely to have been suspended in school, 3.4 times more likely to have been expelled, 2.4 times more likely to have been referred to law enforcement, 2.9 times more likely to have experienced a school-based arrest, and 2.3 times more likely to have been corporally punished.”

While the American Academy of Pediatricians has called scholastic punishment developmentally inappropriate for young people, Darling-Hammond and Ho found that “[d]isparities emerged as early as preschool, where Black students were 2.8 times more likely to have been suspended out of school and 2.4 times more likely to have been expelled.”

The authors explored many school contexts, and found that while disparities emerged in traditional, charter, and alternative schools, “[p]articularly jarring disparities emerged in alternative schools, where Black students were 15.3 times more likely to have experienced corporal punishment.”

Darling-Hammond and Ho also noted that Black students in wealthier schools faced some of the most disparate experiences. In schools where less than 25% of students received free or reduced-price lunches, Black students were 5.3 times more likely to be suspended and 7.8 times more likely to be expelled.

In an interview, Darling-Hammond pointed out that using the most recent federal data revealed that disparities have sustained state and district policies designed to reduce them. He also noted that the federal guidelines designed to protect students from racially biased disciplinary practices were rescinded in 2018, removing an important guard rail.

“We now have decades of social science research documenting the educational and mental health harms of exposure to exclusionary discipline,” Darling-Hammond said, adding that corporal punishment—which is still legal in 22 states—is incredibly damaging for students.

“We know that students who are suspended even one time are many times more likely to drop out of school, and many times more likely to end up in juvenile or adult incarceration,” he said.

“When students are disciplined, they behave worse. It creates a climate where students are feeling less safe and less connected, which doesn’t benefit anyone.”

For Darling-Hammond, who is the father of two Black sons, seeing sweeping disparities was painful.

“The hardest part of this research is having to face the reality that Black youth are having a qualitatively different experience across the board. Preschool students and elementary school students are so developmentally vulnerable and are at a stage where the No. 1 thing that their nervous system needs is acceptance, inclusion, and love,” he said. “So, to see such stark disparities in exclusion and punishment at that stage is truly heart-wrenching.”

However, Darling-Hammond remains hopeful that disparities are not intractable. “We concluded our article by lifting up research about how to combat these disparities. And we did that intentionally. The point wasn’t to just say that these disparities are a stable facet of our educational system. It was to say, yes, they persist. So, let’s work together to combat them.”

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Activism

The Best Advice for Raising Children: Discipline That Makes Sense

In his book Developing Positive Self Images and Discipline in Black Children, Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu suggests that primary aims for socializing Black children should be: establishing goals related to God and the church; familiarizing children with religious texts like the Bible or Quran; educating them of Black culture like Khemetic (Egyptian) Civilization; enlightening them about Black leaders like Malcolm X and Sojourner Truth; and teaching them to strive to be employers, not employees.

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2025

Oakland Post

Headshot of Dr. William A. Thomas. Photo courtesy of Dr. William A. Thomas.

By William A. Thomas, Ph.D.

In many African societies, the primary aim of socialization is to raise children to be socially responsible and eventually provide economic support to their parents and extended families. Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Gyekye taught that children are raised to be respectful of the wishes of their parents and extended adult family members.

In his book Developing Positive Self Images and Discipline in Black Children, Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu suggests that primary aims for socializing Black children should be: establishing goals related to God and the church; familiarizing children with religious texts like the Bible or Quran; educating them of Black culture like Khemetic (Egyptian) Civilization; enlightening them about Black leaders like Malcolm X and Sojourner Truth; and teaching them to strive to be employers, not employees.

Effective disciplinary strategies appropriate to a child’s age and development teach them to regulate their behavior; keep them from harm; enhance their cognitive, social, and emotional executive functioning skills; and reinforce the behavioral patterns taught by their parents and caregivers.

Below are some specific guidelines for disciplining children.

Listen to what children are talking about with interest and show them you understand their feelings. Remember, children mirror and learn about their emotional selves by hearing their feelings reflected back to them. Staying on target also means avoiding labels. When children fail to do what is expected, discussing it is helpful rather than saying how stubborn, lazy, dumb, or bad they are. By the same token, more positive labels can be helpful.

Dependability is another essential component of the discipline process. When parents are dependable, their children learn what to expect and are helped to feel secure. When parents are consistent, children learn to trust, that is, predict their parents’ behaviors with certainty. A child thinks, “When I spill something, I will always be asked to wipe it up.” A child thinks, “If I use foul language, I will always be corrected.” A child thinks, “If I take something that doesn’t belong to me, I will always have to give it back.” The ability to predict with certainty leads children to rely on their parents and the village/community in which they live. Children feel safe when they know what to expect.

Conclusions

It takes a village/community to raise the divine gift that is the Black child. Parents look to therapists for guidance concerning a variety of parenting issues, including discipline. Keep in mind that evidence suggests that corporal punishment is both ineffective in the long term and associated with cognitive and mental health disorders. When parents want guidance about the use of spanking, a child therapist can explore parental feelings, help them better define the goals of discipline, and offer specific behavior management strategies. In addition to providing appropriate education to families, the Bay Area Association of Black Psychologists (Bay ABPsi) can refer them to community resources, like parenting groups and classes.

About the Author

Dr. Thomas is a licensed clinical psychologist with a private practice in the SF/Oakland Bay Area and Beaumont. He is a member of Bay ABPsi, a healing resource committed to providing the Post Newspaper readership with monthly discussions about critical issues in Black Mental Health. Readers are welcome to join us at our monthly chapter meetings every 3^rd Saturday via Zoom and contact us at bayareaabpsi@gmail.com.