Predominantly White Georgia High School Unfair to Black Students

Kevin Palmer

Greenbrier High School is the pride of Columbia County, Georgia. For the past two years it has received an outstanding performance rating. Nevertheless, some Greenbrier students are not being treated fairly.

According to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, K-12 Student Discipline Dashboard, the data suggests Black students have been treated unfairly when consequences are meted out for attendance incidents. This has occurred even though Black students had less attendance related incidents than White students.

In 2017, attendance related incidents for Black students were only 13 percent compared to 80 percent for White students. In 2018, attendance related incidents for Blacks were only 20 percent compared to 69 percent for Whites. Yet, when dispensing consequences for attendance incidents, administrators were less harsh toward White students.

In 2017, 96 percent of White students received In-School Suspensions (ISS) and only 4 percent received Out-of-School Suspensions (OSS) while 79 percent of Black students received ISS and 21 percent received OSS. In 2018, 97 percent of White students received ISS and only 3 percent received OSS while 71 percent of Black students received ISS and 29 percent received OSS.

Greenbrier High School must do better.