PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The American Civil Liberties Union, Rhode Island, released a report Wednesday that says that black and hispanic students are suspended from school at much higher rates that their respective numbers in the school population.
The ACLU analyzed eight years' worth of public suspension data from 38 school districts. Although the agency didn't conclude why minority students were suspended at greater rates, it showed that this pattern exists across Rhode Island.
The "over-use" of suspenion extends to elementary students with nearly 1,400 children suspended last year, 173 of them in first grade. Of the suspensions between kindergarten and fifth grade, 28 percent involved a black student.
The ACLU also said that suspensions are over-used as a punishment across ethnic and racial groups.