‘Repulsive’: Seattle Schools Student Punishment Policy Factors in Race

Gabriel Hays | March 29, 2022
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One Seattle school district has recently enacted a policy that allows teachers to factor in a student’s race when weighing disciplinary measures. So essentially students are going to receive different treatment based on the color of their skin.

Wouldn’t Martin Luther King, Jr. be proud?

The Clover Park school board voted 3-2 in favor of the shocking policy on March 14, which has been dubbed “culturally responsive discipline” by its proponents. 

The policy according to The Daily Mail “encourages school staff to impose punishments that 'may be adapted to individual student needs in a culturally responsive manner.’” That sounds like a very benign way of saying that students are going to be treated differently based on their race and ethnicity.

And it’s Seattle,, a refuge of Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Which students do you think are going to receive more lenient punishments? Certainly not the ones who have benefited from centuries of white privilege, right?

Those in support of the new policy assert that it is in keeping with a “a state law passed in 2021 that compels districts to 'align with Cultural Competency, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion standards.’’' But that doesn’t put critics at ease, considering a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy seems to be code for woke, forced diversity measures that offer disparate treatment to various demographics, whether that’s in the workplace or public schools.

Critics claim that the school district’s new policy “will encourage harsher or lighter punishments based on a student's race, with white students being disciplined more severely.” 

Seattle Radio host and Fox News regular Jason Rantz spoke on Fox Business’ Varney & Co., describing these policies as an example of “institutionalizing critical race theory.” 

Rantz explained:

[They] take into account the student’s race, so when you’ve got a white kid and a black kid committing the exact same rule-breaking, the teacher or the administration is supposed to look at that and say ‘Ok, well we have too many black kids, or too many Latino kids, or too many Asian kids who are getting disciplined versus the white kids.

Of course then the conclusion from these teachers/administrators would be that there is “implicit bias going on here” and that maybe certain groups don’t need to be punished the same way as others because of their cultural backgrounds.

And that ultimately means the policy is flat out racist or discriminatory. Rantz added that he finds the policy “repulsive” on a moral level. He also claimed he “can’t imagine that they [local teachers] are comfortable doing this.”

RELATED: ‘WINNING’: VA Senate Passes Bill Allowing Parents to Review Public Schools’ ‘Sexually Explicit’ Curricula

It’s funny he should say that, as Daily Mail described one of the teachers and policy proponents appearing nervous when asked about the policy in a recent school board meeting: “Board President Alyssa Anderson Pearson, who supported the measure, laughed nervously and deferred to Acting Superintendent Brian Laubach.”

According to the account, Laubach responded with, “Essentially, they are referring there that you look at are you dispersing discipline across the ethnicities, the racial groups, equitably,” OK, so they’re still admitting to prescribing different treatment based upon ethnicity. So we’re just openly promoting racism in public schools now?

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