Summary Of Discipline For Girls Differ By Hue Tanzina Vega

SUMMARY

In Schools’ Discipline for Girls Differ by Race and Hue Tanzina Vega describes the situation with race discrimination in modern American schools. The author gives the history of a 12-years-old African-American school girl Mikia Hutchings, who was accused of a trespassing misdemeanor and a felony.

At the beginning Vega guides us through all fears, worries and penalties Mikia and her family passes through, because they do not have much money to pay in restitution. The girl was on probation whole summer; she worked 16 hours of community service and apologized to the students whose sneakers were damaged in the incident. At the same time the author explains that the Mikia’s white friend was let go after her parents paid the compensation for the damages.

The author gives the data of ratio between black and white school girls, who were suspended for the last years.

And the analyze shows that darker-skinned girls are disciplined more often and strictly than light-skinned ones.

Vega interviews the girl’s lawyer Mr. Tafelski. He states that in juvenile courts and school disciplinary hearings he has represented only black kids. And Mikia’s case is an instance of racial inequality in school discipline.

The author gives an example of the other similar case, when the black girl was accused of striking the white male student with a book without any evidences. And she was presumed guilty.

Tanzina Vega mentions the researches, which were conducted by Villanova University. They indicate that the black school girls with the darkest color of skin are more often suspended than black school girls with the lightest color of skin.

The author claims that

RESPONSE

The main idea of the article Schools’ Discipline for Girls Differ by Race and Hue by Tanzina Vega is increasing number of race discrimination cases in the public

schools.
The researches show that black skin tone mostly belongs to the probability of being suspended in the school. African American students with dark color of skin have the higher chances of being suspended than those with light color of skin. And tone of skin has bigger influence on African American girls than African American boys.
But the headline and entire premise of this article is misleading. The premise is that two girls -- one black and one white -- committed the same infraction, but were treated differently. But the article states that one was charged with trespassing and faced criminal charges for that offense. The language of the article is vague, but it seems to suggest that Mikia was charged with trespassing not for the vandalism, but for returning to school during the term of her suspension. Vandalism and trespassing are two very separate offenses. There is no difference in treatment if only one of the girls violated the terms of her suspension by returning to school and committing a separate offense in the process.