Schenectady parents question district discipline Thursday, June 25, 2009 By Michael Goot (Contact) Gazette Reporter
SCHENECTADY — Some angry parents Wednesday night accused the Schenectady City School District of arresting far more black students than white students. Colleen Dawson-Williams said her son, a high school student, was clowning around in the hallways about two months ago and the school administrators called the police to arrest him. Dawson-Williams said the dean of students had called her but her son was already at the police station by the time she got to the school. She said her son was charged with trespassing. Those charges were eventually dismissed, but she said it shouldn’t have happened. “My son shouldn’t have been incarcerated,” she said at a community meeting at the Hamilton Hill Arts Center on Wednesday evening. The event was organized by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to give parents a chance to ask questions of school officials. About 30 people attended. In March, ACORN sent a letter to Superintendent Eric Ely seeking to give input on how to improve the schools in the wake of four suicides of Schenectady High School students this academic year. ACORN officials believe that this problem was part of a larger issue of teens in distress. Dawson-Williams said black students are being arrested in high numbers. “What do you think that does to your morale, their self-esteem?” She said she would like the attorney general’s office to investigate this matter. Deborah Rembert also said she believes there is a double standard. “These African-American kids, if they just breathe hard, they’re going straight to jail, directly to jail without any questions,” she said. Ely said he did not have any statistics on the number of arrests readily available but he would look into the issue. He stressed that the schools do not arrest anybody: That’s the police’s job. Sometimes, he said, there are situations where police have to be called. “If a child is out of control and we can’t control the situation, we’ll call the police to respond,” he said. “Whatever happened to calling the parent first?” shouted another audience member. Others suggested that counselors should talk to these children before calling law enforcement. “In many cases, they won’t listen to anybody,” Ely calmly responded.............>>>>..............>>>>...............................http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2009/jun/25/0625_acorn/
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