The Capital Times published an article reporting on the Oct. 29 symposium, “Addressing Inequities in School Policies, Policing, and Discipline Practices.”
The symposium was the third event in the Real Talk for Real Change symposia series, hosted by the School of Education’s Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (OEDI) and office of Professional Learning and Community Education (PLACE). It featured five panelists from UW–Madison, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and area school districts who explored the complex issues surrounding inequities in school discipline and aimed to promote action toward creating more equitable and safe environments for all students.
Kevin Henry, one of the panelists and an assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, said that changing inequities in school discipline means “giving up the world as we know it.”
“It’s not going to be easy, it’s not going to be comfortable, it’s not going to be stickers and lollipops,” said Henry. “But it is what’s right.”
Ashley White, another panelist and an assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education, noted that oftentimes, “even well-intentioned ideas at a big picture level” are diluted in practice.
“By the time laws, policies, regulations, guidance make their ways to school districts and classrooms, they are interpreted and exercised in a way that reduces their strength in terms of equity,” she said. “Every policy and practice in our country has a target. I don’t think the inequities that we witnessed can be anymore categorized as a structural accident.”
Check out the Capital Times’ full report on the symposium at madison.com, here.