McKinney Parents Worried Students Singled Out By Race
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MCKINNEY (CBSDFW) -- When students get in trouble at school, it can have a major impact on their future. Some black students and parents in McKinney say a new study suggests they are singled out for punishment more than white students.
After the McKinney pool incident a few months a ago, a lot of people started digging into numbers to find evidence of racial injustice. Inside McKinney schools, some say they've found it.
Isailah Edwards is a school cheerleader and a 13-year-old who is glad to be out of the seventh grade.
"In the seventh grade I got in trouble a lot," says Edwards.
She is not alone among black students in McKinney according to a new study.
A non-profit legal group called Texas Appleseed found black students accounted for 53 percent of disorderly conduct cases in school over the last three years. While white and Latino students made up 23 and 24 percent respectively.
That's despite whites making up 53 percent of the student population while Latinos and blacks make up 27 and 13 percent respectively.
Edward's mother worries that her daughter is more at risk to be sent to an alternative school.
"I know she's come home before discussing the different treatment between the white kids and the black kids," says Katia Mervil, mother.
Alonzo Tutson is a former McKinney teacher who says he has seen disparity in discipline firsthand.
"You have the white students doing the same thing they may get detention but more often than not their parents will just be contacted," says Tutson.
McKinney ISD not only disputes the credibility of the study but also says 8 of its 12 school officers are minorities.
Edwards prepares to enter the eighth grade and hopes to see changes.
"I'm actually looking forward to going back to school the only thing I worry about is it will be like last year," she says.
McKinney ISD issued a statement saying that quote,"...we will continue to monitor our school climate, disciplinary practices, and policies."
They also say there were only 40 disorderly conduct tickets issued among 24,500 students.
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