The SPLC urges federal authorities to launch investigation against district for repeated racial bias

Louisiana is taking excessive punishment to a whole new level. The focus of incarceration versus education is coming to light as the Jefferson Parish School District had an 8th grader handcuffed and taken away from a history class for throwing Skittles on a school bus. There’s nothing sweet about the school district’s arrest records either.

In just one year, 1,600 other students were arrested for minor offenses like swearing and carrying cell phones. 40 percent of the student body is black and 80 percent of those arrested were black. The disproportion is obvious and the question of racial discrimination is far from vague.

As a matter of fact, three years ago the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a complaint with the U.S Department of Education investigation because of the disproportionate number of African-American students arrested for minor rule violations. Now, the SPLC says the issue at Jefferson Parish School District has worsened.

The eight grader who threw Skittles was subjected to spend six days at a juvenile detention center. The SPLC is now asking federal authorities to intervene quickly. The complaint urges federal officials to take action and makes note of the fact that the district’s arrest and law enforcement practices violate Titles VI and IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It states that there has been “little to no movement” since the DOE launched its investigation three years ago. The school district maintains lucrative contracts with local law enforcement agencies, including the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, that give officers stationed at district middle and high schools the authority to stop, frisk, detain, question, search and arrest school children on and off school grounds.

Eden Heilman, Managing attorney for the SPLC’s Louisiana office says that “The Jefferson Parish Public School System has continued its destructive practice of arresting and jailing children for minor, and often trivial, violations of school rules and decorum. It’s nothing less than a racially biased system of criminalizing African-American children. It must stop now,” says Heilman.

-Abesi Manyando(@abesipr)