Rick Badie / My Opinion

By Whatever

August 20, 2008 2:57 PM | Link to this

Oh, good grief. The man was stating a fact, not an opinion. If the same level of indignance was spent by these “parents” on bringing their own children’s behavior up to minimal standards, the cited fact wouldn’t exist, and this would be a non-issue.

By LT5000

August 20, 2008 3:03 PM | Link to this

HaHa. Blowhard Badie certaily pulled down his last article real fast after his journalistic (ha) instinct failed him.

How does such a idiot keep his job? You think proving your idiocy once a day would be enough.

But Blubbering Badie couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He states “there’s a story on the Gwinnett page about parents - and the local NAACP - calling for the ouster of Wilbanks.”

That is blatantly false.

From the AJC story.

Portalatin called Gwinnett Schools Wednesday morning to talk to Wilbanks, but was told that he was unavailable at the moment and a staff person would call him back. The organization is not seeking Wilbanks’ resignation but does want him to apologize.

Moron Badie is 0 for two today. How does this idiot keep his job?

Yes Badie, minorities are a large number of discipline problems in our school and will thus be punished.

Then they grow up and make up a disporportionate amount of the prison population.

LT50000

By Cindy

August 20, 2008 3:05 PM | Link to this

I do not think any disciplinary action should be taken whatsoever. When I first read the story last week, I took pause at just exactly what was being said. I am the type person who tries to think outside the box and look at things from many perspectives.

At first I was slightly alarmed about the Idaho Q&A. So I thought about it and realized that as people, we each know what color we are. Stating it shouldn’t be reason for a scandal. We can’t pick and choose if and when we will be offended by things like this story addresses.

There was no reasonable way to dress it up. And why would it needed dressed up? Phrasing it any other way would have sounded racial and indicative of differences based on color. Instead it was a simple statement of facts.

If it were reversed and someone said “Does they have any whites in Lousiana?” and the response was “not many”, it would be no different and still not offensive. Statement of fact, that’s all it was.

Now I would like to hear what everyone else has to say.

By Cindy

August 20, 2008 3:13 PM | Link to this

Dang ya’ll beat me to it! One things for sure though, I didn’t waste any time proofreading my comment. I do know how to speak and write,despite the typos/grammatical errors above.

By Badie

August 20, 2008 3:17 PM | Link to this

Cindy: Thanks for suggesting the Wilbanks ‘non-controversy’ as a topic to discuss. Have a good day.

By Cindy

August 20, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this

ouch that hurt.

By Enough!

August 20, 2008 3:30 PM | Link to this

Enough is enough. Mention “blacks” and suddenly everyone is offended. The conversation is about minorities being disciplined more than whites (and never mind how absurd that whole discussion is). If there is a state without that problem, wouldn’t it stand to reason that a question might be “are there minorities in that state”? Aren’t blacks a minority? People need to stop being so damned offended at every little thing. Sounds to me like Ms Starting-her-own-Charter-school has a chip on her shoulder and a reason to want to make the school system look bad. I’m no fan of Wilbanks, but this whole story over nothing is absurd.

By LT5000

August 20, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this

Anyone notice Badie tried to cover his tracks after posting blatantly falst information?

He Badie, how’s that “Journalistic Instinct” working out for you on that Suspicious Suspension?

What a rube.

LT5000

By Badie

August 20, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this

Cindy: You misunderstood me. This is a great topic because it exposed what I - and many readers - take to be a non-issue. I wasn’t trying to berate you at all. (Sometimes comments come across the wrong way in print.) Keep posting!

By Hollywould

August 20, 2008 3:36 PM | Link to this

This should not even be mentioned. Look at the facts. How can anyone dispute what the facts say. Who is creating the problems? Anyone worried about what was said is in denial!! Man, clean up your house first.

By Cindy

August 20, 2008 3:41 PM | Link to this

I’m no big fan of Wilbanks either. Wasn’t a fan of Sam King in Rockdale County either. One is black and the other is white. Has no bearing on how I feel about their performance as superintendant.

By Cindy

August 20, 2008 3:46 PM | Link to this

LT, it does say up at the top that some of the parents are calling for his resignation…

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/08/20/superintendentcallresignation.html

By Reba

August 20, 2008 4:04 PM | Link to this

Here is a factual statement and I challenge anyone to debunk it. Where ever there is a majority of black people (anywhere in the world) there is great corruption, low regard for the law, high poverty, low achievement in schools, and low moral values. Sure, the black community may attend a church, but they defiantly do not practice what is preached. Want proof? listen to V103 in the morning and you will here a short stint of gospel music followed by the hate filled misogynistic rap. I have tried to be open minded all my life. I have tried to be diversified in my friends, but I am ready to find a majority white place and move there. Call me racist all you want, but even Jessie Jackson stated that he would cross the street to avoid a group of black kids.

By Ajamu

August 20, 2008 4:06 PM | Link to this

Once again failing to see the forest for the trees. Defend him if you want to but Wilbanks innuendo speaks to his lack of cultural sensitivity and obvious bias. The use of the word ‘minority’ is a code word and the fact that African-American (not black,[Where is negro, afro, black, or colored land?]) children receive more (REPORTED) discipinary actions in Gwinnett County should be of no surprise to anyone. Was it not reported just a couple of years ago that there was a mass coverup of discipinary actions by GCPS that Wilbanks put a convenient spin on? Scsndalous! My son is sophomore at Berkmar HS and as a freshman he told us about a white student pulling a knife on another student in the bathroom the first week of school. We called the school to find out about it. We never heard back from the school and to our knowledge nothing was ever done about it. The reality is that African American boys are profiled by teachers and administrators just like African American men are profiled every day in this county and country. As an educator who specialized in dealing with troubled African American boys I will not excuse bad behavior, but the numbers obviously indicate an enforcement rather than enrichment mentality towards African American boys. My son served in school suspension for a frivolous violation of talking in the hallway during class change. It’s on his permanent record now and witnesses (we interviewed several) said our son was not talking. This kind of stuff goes on all the time primarily because of lack of sensitivity, familiarity, and stereotypical profiling. This will continue to be an issue until the demographics of the administration, faculty, and staff reflect the demographics of the student body they are supposed to be able to teach. By the way the most recent reports indicate that the student body of Gwinnett county is MAJORITY nonwhite, K-12. To say it is made up of a minority majority sounds like an oxymoron to me. Recruit teachers who are experienced dealing with African American boys and girls, hire them and watch how the numbers change when it comes to appropriate disciplinary actions being taken to resolve everyday issues in school.

By LT5000

August 20, 2008 4:10 PM | Link to this

Cindy,

In Badie’s original post he claimed the NAACP was calling for his resignation.

I copied the sentence from his original post and placed it after “He states”.

Badie came back and changed his original post to remove “NAACP”. A real journalist would have issued a retraction, but not Badie, he just tries to cover up and ignore his (numerous) mistakes.

Wonder how his story on the Suspicious Suspension is working out for our Ace Cub Reporter Rick Badie.

As stated before, that story disappeared faster than Badie’s Grand Slam Breakfast at Denny’s. But Badie still has the egg on his face.

LT5000

By Stan

August 20, 2008 4:14 PM | Link to this

I’m no fan fan of Mr. Wilbanks. Personally I don’t see what he said as being THAT big of a deal. Though it is hard to read tone in the quote.

STFU LT. D.A.

By Hollywould

August 20, 2008 4:20 PM | Link to this

Ajumo or whatever, Once again another (let’s see if I can be pc here) person of color in denial. What do you mean hire someone of color? I guess you mean people of color have more respect for their own. That is about as racist as it gets. You have all your people of color teaching in the inner city and we see how good that does. Man, I am sick of the double standard. Maybe get your kids to do the right thing one time.

By Cindy

August 20, 2008 4:35 PM | Link to this

LT, I see what you’re saying about the NAACP statement. Just was pointing out that part I showed you, but I missed the first half of what you were saying. Sorry about that.

Reba, I don’t see the relevance of your statements, in reference to this topic. Seems more like an emotion based post, not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not really objective in discussing the real issue.

Ajamu, Minority/Majority is not defined by numbers. My kids have all been in detention and in in-house suspension. I have blond haired-blue eyed kids. Doesn’t sound like racial profiling to me. The infractions? haha, late to class and talking when they weren’t supposed to be. Now that right there is some serious stuff! Not.

Do you really think I asked them what color their teacher was? There’s good and bad in every realm. A persons skin color, religious background, and other social factors do not HAVE to define a persons heart.

Do I see color? Yes, who doesn’t? even bi-racial families know they’re heritage. It’s when we judge people soley on those factors, that the problems arise. We don’t have to marry someone different just to prove we’re not racist, but it does make sense to not comdemn everyone who is different than ourselves.

If everyone checked themselves and acted accordingly, we’d all be better off.

By catlady

August 20, 2008 5:36 PM | Link to this

I think his point was, when the racial demographics are so skewed, as in Idaho (2006: 95% white, less than 1% black if I looked at it correctly) it is harder to see any valid racial bias. I mean, if every single black kid got in trouble, it would still be a very small proportion of all the kids in trouble in the whole state. They might, for example, be 10% of the kids in trouble, but who would care much about such a small number? I mean, it would be unlikely to catch anyone’s eye.

Let them report it by SEs instead of race in Georgia and I think you would see a very different picture. I think lower SES kids, white and black, tend to get into more serious problems than higher SES kids, white and black. It has been well documented that single parent homes disproportionately are represented in dropouts, illiterates, “early family formation”, and prison. Single parent homes tend to be lower SES. And two thirds of black kids are born to single parent homes. Or report it by parent status (single vs both parents vs one parent and a step parent). Or report it by mother’s educational level. In other words, instead of looking at it by race look at it by recognized valid predictors of student achievement.

I DON’T think the statement he made was INTENDED to say that black kids are most of our problem in behavior, although without parsing through the statistics, it sounded that way. Maybe he WAs trying to say that, but I really doubt he was.

By catlady

August 20, 2008 5:54 PM | Link to this

BTW, in my system about 2% of the behavior problems are caused by biracial kids, but I don’t hear anyone protesting. Biracial black/white kids make up about 1% of our school population, and biracial/cultural Latino/white kids about 3%. Latino kids countywide are about 20%, and the rest are your average, generally lower-middle class white kids. Latino discipline referrals are about 5%.

If you look at it SES-wise, I am estimating 70% of the discipline referrals are low income kids, and probably a higher percentage than that are from single mother or mother/boyfriend of the month homes.

Race isn’t the answer to everything.

By KIM

August 20, 2008 7:49 PM | Link to this

When all groups begin to feel confident in their worth, the groups will not feel so defensive. When I read Mr. Wilbanks’ comment, I interpreted his comment as one to underline that Idaho would not have any statistics to support or refute the national trend due to the demographics. Ms. Seward, clearly beginning charter school to support some students in the county, has not indicated any reason there should be an apology…much less termination??? Ms. Townsend, about whom nothing is known, may have an agenda also…but it may be that she ‘read into the comment’ something. Does she have an agenda??? For heavens sake, termination for what? Asking a question? Making a comment that contains absolutely no inappropriate content? Mr. Wilbanks, as a public servant, knows he is a bull’s eye for those who have agendas different from that of the school district. If it were not for his consistemt leadership, many students would have fallen by the wayside long ago,…waiting for another leader to immerge who cares for ALL students’ success. The stats support that Mr. Wilbanks is doing what is right. For those who don’t think so…what evidence do you have otherwise?

By Ajamu

August 20, 2008 8:19 PM | Link to this

Cindy: There is no doubt about the fact that in every middle and high school in the country you have young people who receive disciplinary actions from the school they attend. Race has nothing to do with it. It goes with the enviroment of human interaction. The fact that your children were disciplined does not really speak to the issue. But since you want to go Aryan on me; it would be interesting to see the statistical evidence showing what percentage of blond haired, blue eyed children coming from single mother, never married, low income, undereducated, households, recieve disciplinary actions by the schools they attend. Statistics can be manipulated to be misinterpreted. They issue of cultural sensitivity must be addressed if you are going to have disproportionate representation of a particular group of educators trying to teach a group of students who are profoundly different culturally from the educators. Not all teachers teach because they love children and children can recognize it quickly in a closed enviroment like a classroom. I see the Badie haters have nothing to say about the disciplinary coverup. So typical.

By Bruce Wilcox

August 20, 2008 9:16 PM | Link to this

“Do they have any blacks in Idaho? They don’t have many.”, a very intelligent statement from a Superintendent of Schools in the South or an ignorant statement, guess around here you just flip a coin.

By Cindy

August 20, 2008 10:17 PM | Link to this

I went Aryan on you? Or was that just all you could come up with? Attack my integrity instead of presenting good information that can be discussed. Your method of communication won’t cause me to start belittling you or anyone else here because of race/ethnicity…and I’m certainly not a Badie hater or I wouldn’t bother to come here.

Note that when your child got into trouble, you immediately seeked ways to discredit the source. When mine get into trouble, they’re held accountable. That’s why mine hopefully won’t be residents of the jail in a few years. If they make poor choices it won’t be because I enabled them.

Now back to the topic at hand. If your child is repeatedly profiled, homeschool him. If he still turns out to get in trouble, simply look in the mirror for where to place alot of the blame. Or hey, here’s another idea, let him know he’s held accountable for his choices.

By MJK

August 20, 2008 10:25 PM | Link to this

I think the appropriate question to ask might be “Do they have many minorities in Idaho”. Why would the superintendent ask if there were many Blacks, as opposed to Asians or Latinos or minorities in general?

Evidence indicates that in districts where corporal punishment is allowed, minorities and the disabled are disproportionately the recipients of discipline.

The problem of bias exists and it appears our superintendent is part of the problem.

By Ajamu

August 20, 2008 10:46 PM | Link to this

Cindy: I think you missed the part about ” I will not excuse bad behavior…”. My son is an honor student and participated with the SGA as a freshman. He’s on the college prep track and contrary to your media influenced perceptions is a fine young man with friends of all races. What about yours?

By Cindy

August 20, 2008 10:55 PM | Link to this

I’m glad your son is successful and I hope he does very well in life.

By Competitive

August 21, 2008 12:10 AM | Link to this

I teach in Gwinnett. While Wilbanks isn’t perfect, he’s better than almost any other option out there today. Also, he deserves credit for his efforts to diversify Gwinnett. The man is not racist, nor were his comments.

The fact is the statistics are not relevant. It does not matter what percentage of students in a racial group are punished compared to their percentage of the total population. The important statistic, which is NEVER researched, is the percentage of actual infractions that are committed (not reported or punished, but committed) by each racial group.

Why don’t we have researchers going to observe schools and tally the infractions they witness by racial group? Maybe it’s because no one is willing to suffer the backlash if the results show that some racial groups actually do commit a higher percentage of infractions in school. The researcher would probably face the same firing squad Wilbanks is facing now.

Believe me, there are tons of infractions by students of all racial backgrounds that never result in any punishments in all schools.

I challenge you to go to your local elementary, middle, and high schools and do some people-watching for a few days. While you are at it, make sure you visit some of the more diverse schools in your area and some of the most homogeneous. You will probably walk away with a very different opinion concerning school discipline, or the lack thereof. You might even think more students deserve to be punished than actually are punished.

By Competitive

August 21, 2008 12:12 AM | Link to this

I teach in Gwinnett. While Wilbanks isn’t perfect, he’s better than almost any other option out there today. Also, he deserves credit for his efforts to diversify Gwinnett. The man is not racist, nor were his comments.

The fact is the statistics are not relevant. It does not matter what percentage of students in a racial group are punished compared to their percentage of the total population. The important statistic, which is NEVER researched, is the percentage of actual infractions that are committed (not reported or punished, but committed) by each racial group.

Why don’t we have researchers going to observe schools and tally the infractions they witness by racial group? Maybe it’s because no one is willing to suffer the backlash if the results show that some racial groups actually do commit a higher percentage of infractions in school. The researcher would probably face the same firing squad Wilbanks is facing now.

Believe me, there are tons of infractions by students of all racial backgrounds that never result in any punishments in all schools.

I challenge you to go to your local elementary, middle, and high schools and do some people-watching for a few days. While you are at it, make sure you visit some of the more diverse schools in your area and some of the most homogeneous. You will probably walk away with a very different opinion concerning school discipline, or the lack thereof. You might even think more students deserve to be punished than actually are punished.

By Competitive

August 21, 2008 12:15 AM | Link to this

Sorry for the double post. I had connection issues.

By Bruce Wilcox

August 21, 2008 12:42 AM | Link to this

Competitive give me a break, all they have to work with is stats from the schools. Are you saying the school police officers are not doing their jobs, that the officers and reports are false. If so, to protect whom?

You sound like someone who needs a sedative to teach. I do hope you’re not a math teacher, “statistics are not relevant”, interesting, very interesting.

By Katie

August 21, 2008 6:02 AM | Link to this

Oh good grief!!! No, the man should not have to apologize.

I think the truth needs to be told more often, even if it upsets certain minority groups. Being truthful is not being racist. If a certain minority group is screwing up more than another, tell the truth about it. Certain minority groups need to change their behaviors and stop using their minority status as a reason they can’t.

By jim d

August 21, 2008 7:46 AM | Link to this

Good morning Rick,

I believe that were there a few minority members of our GCPS BOE that this wouldn’t be an issue. But let’s just face the facts—Idaho presumably has more blacks, percentage wise, than does GCPS on the school board.

Excuse me for taking the opportunity to point out that the largest school system in the state has zero minority school board members even though it is a majority minority school system. I find that rather interesting, don’t you? I mean since we both are well aware that we do have some great potential minority leaders within the county. I guess it’s just difficult to unseat an incumbent, specifically one that has set on the board for 3 generations.

I also believe Wilbanks comments might have gone unheeded had he not made similar comments, a few years ago, about SPED being an albatross around the neck of Gwinnett county.

At the very least, I do believe he could benefit from some sensitivity training.

By changing

August 21, 2008 8:20 AM | Link to this

Gwinnett is becoming a minority-majority county. As a white woman when can I start calling myself a minority. I am sick to death of the “everything bad happens to black people” attitude. If a school has 70% black population then yes they will have more discipline problems than whites. As whites become the minority in our schools, they will have less dicipline in numbers. It’s not a racial issue, it is just statistics.

By JH

August 21, 2008 8:23 AM | Link to this

You can take Wilbanks comments and interpret them anyway you like. Racist - NO, stupid - YES. Quite frankly, we ALL say things, even at our workplace, that make absolutely no sense.

I, too, have never been a fan of Wilbanks. However, he has done a pretty good job of holding down a system that has become incresingly difficult to run. The fact that Gwinnett County is in decay and declining everyday is not his fault. I dare anybody to take on the this job and keep a straight face for all these years.

Being at the top of a pile of crap is probably not a heck of fun and the man just called it like he saw it.

Everybody needs to stop knitpicking over every little thing you don’t like. It makes you look ignorant and you certainly makes you AND your community your own WORST enemy.

By Joey

August 21, 2008 8:31 AM | Link to this

When comparing the proper proportionate distribution of disciplin, one should not default to race as a measure. The correct measure should be who is behaving badly and are these the students receiving the diciplin.

If it true that one race seems to be recieving a disproportionate amount of diciplin, we should ask why are these students behaving badly? Then work to correct that.

By Sloan

August 21, 2008 8:59 AM | Link to this

Just watch the nightly news and you can easily see who needs to be punished more.

By Katie

August 21, 2008 9:13 AM | Link to this

Jim—-Perhaps there weren’t any ‘qualified’ minorities for the job??? If you’re not qualified, you should not get the job—just because of your skin color or ethnic background.

By jim d

August 21, 2008 9:29 AM | Link to this

Katie,

I didn’t say we needed a minority super. I would however not object to one who was qualified.

Board members are elected. another point is that the largest school system in the state is one with the fewest number of board members. Why is that? you might ask.

Well here’s a thought in answer to that question. Breaking the system into more districts would weaken the white voting base that keeps the powers to be in power, thus assuring minorities have little or no voice. Believe me when I say breaking it into more, smaller districts that would be more in tuned with the community’s needs has been suggested and summarily dismissed by the current regime.

By jim d

August 21, 2008 9:37 AM | Link to this

changing,

“Gwinnett is becoming a minority-majority county.”

This actually happened in our GCPS system over two years ago as I recall.

By Faye

August 21, 2008 9:41 AM | Link to this

I’m so sick and tired of blacks getting their pants in a wad every time a white uses the word “black”… They were talking about disparity in discipline of minorities . . HEL-LO!! If Idaho doesn’t have any problems and Gwinnett has a multitide of problems with regard to discipline of minorities … then one would ponder as to how many “blacks” (oops I said it!!!) are in Idaho!

By Elaine in Lilburn

August 21, 2008 9:42 AM | Link to this

Mr. Badie, I truly do respect and admire you and the columns you write. But, it does seem if the word ‘Black’ is mentioned concerning any group, someone gets their hackles up and gets radical. Please folks, get over it! I realize the blacks were oppressed, enslaved, etc., but stop looking for a way to ‘get whitey’. It’s non productive and keeps things stirred up. Let’s all stop being agitators and use dialogue to bridge gaps, not create more. Personally, unless one is ultra sensitive, they should not have been offended by Mr. Wilbank’s comment. If they are that sensitive, it’s THEIR problem to solve, not blame Mr. Wilbanks. Aren’t there more important areas to focus? I am really tired of the ‘us vs. them’ mentality, aren’t you?? Elaine in Lilburn (29 yr resident of Gwinnett)

By Michael H. Smith

August 21, 2008 10:04 AM | Link to this

The real issue is not being discussed. The NAACP should be giving an apology not asking for one. Unfortunately, all ethnocentric organization eventually stray. Even the best ones that once served a just and meaningful purpose like the NAACP ultimately prove to do more harm than good to the very people they claim to represent. This non-sense makes that case.

J. Alvin can apologize all over the place until his tongue drops to the ground, will that make any difference in the lives of the black students presently and more importantly in their future?

Now, exactly what is the NAACP doing about the “real issue”?

Seems to me these black children are not being advanced in all of this while the NAACP advances its’ press exposure at their expense.

Agree or disagree with my last statement, Mr. Badie?

By Cindy

August 21, 2008 10:26 AM | Link to this

I kinda wonder if the woman who wants to open the charter school is agging this on and riling up people, just to forward her own agenda. Don’t know why she’d do that…what the motivation would be…so I’m mulling it over right now. I’ll need to educate myself better because on the topic of charter schools, currently, I’m pretty ignorant.

By Katie

August 21, 2008 10:55 AM | Link to this

Okay, help me out here. Blacks are NOT African Americans, they are Americans if they are born here—period. If we shouldn’t call them African Americans, blacks or colored people, what should we call them?

I am considered a ‘white’ person but my skin is hardly white. I’m more of a pale pink/olive complexioned person. Should I be calling myself a German/Irish/American???? Come on, get over this descriptive terminology, it just perpetuates ignorance. We’re Americans, white/black/brown and all shades in between. Oh yeah, that melting pot idea. Shame on me for forgetting that.

By ALR

August 21, 2008 11:13 AM | Link to this

I can not believe we are discussing this. How ridioulous. People need to stop over reacting and stop getting their feelings hurt.

By Badie

August 21, 2008 11:23 AM | Link to this

Mr. Smith: You raised some valid points in your posting regarding the Wilbanks issue. (Be sure to read Saturday’s print column regarding the discipline issue.) As for the NAACP, I am quite certain that, at least the Gwinnett chapter, is heavily involved in enriching the lives of young people, regardless of color. It hosts events throughout the year - blood drives, back-to-school events, etc. Be safe. PEACE

By Ajamu

August 21, 2008 11:41 AM | Link to this

Katie: Are you ashamed of your German heritage? Why shouldn’t a person be proud of knowing their ancestry, be proud of their family’s achievment since coming from the OLD country and proud to preserve some of the cultural traditions that came with being Italian, Germain, Irish, Chinese, or African (Yoruba). We are who we are and one cannot avoid seeing the differences between the races and ethnic groups. We have 10 different ethnic groups in our subdivision and I (African American) have been the Homeowners Association president for over 2 years. i was voted in,and out of 120 homes there are only 10 African or African American families. We share our cultures and learn from each other. What kind of melting pot do you want?

By LT5000

August 21, 2008 11:47 AM | Link to this

Blubbering Badie says “As for the NAACP, I am quite certain that, at least the Gwinnett chapter, is heavily involved in enriching the lives of young people, regardless of color.”

The NAACP was squealing like a stuck pig over the supposed Taser “murder” of Frederick Jerome Williams.

As a matter of fact you too were spouting off.

But being the fourth rate journalist you are. You blubbered before getting the fact right.

*The wife of Frederick Jerome Williams abandoned all claims in the wrongful death lawsuit against Gwinnett County and several deputies involved in the scuffle with Williams, the Sheriff’s department announced late Thursday afternoon. The federal lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning the Williams family cannot refile it at a later date, said Thomas Mitchell, the attorney who represented Gwinnett County. *

Williams’ death drew a firestorm of criticism from civil rights groups such as the Gwinnett NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), who led three marches outside the Gwinnett County courthouse calling for a moratorium on Taser use by law enforcement.

Care to repost your error filled article on the topic Badie? Or are you too busy using your finely tuned journalistic instincts to investigate the “Case of the Suspicious Suspension”?

How about owning up to the fact that you changed this article after posting, yet another, falsehood?

LT5000

By Michael H. Smith

August 21, 2008 11:50 AM | Link to this

All that sounds good and fine and I will be reading your Saturday column. However, this discipline problem as it specifically affects black students so adversely is something the NAACP should be all over in trying to remedy with “real solutions” rather than focusing on J. Alvin’s misspeaking which doesn’t mount-up-to a warm bucket of spit in real terms that affect all us now and into the future. Especially as it affects these black children who need help in getting their lives together and that education we are all paying for that they are not getting.

Keep your eyes on the prize. Godspeed.

By Stan

August 21, 2008 12:03 PM | Link to this

Hey LT,

STFU!!! :)

By Competitive

August 21, 2008 10:11 PM | Link to this

Bruce- First, I never claimed anyone was being dishonest or not doing their job.

Second, I realize it’s the only stats they have. I simply am saying that it’s not the statitistics we need to be able to understand what, if any, problem exists.

Third, statistics are only relevant if they give you the information you need. I am saying we need to know what groups of people are actually breaking the rules most often and compare that to the percentage of punishments, not how many are punished compared to the percentage of the population. If whites commit 70% of the crimes, then they deserve 70% of the punishments. It doesn’t matter if whites are 10% of the population or 90%. School discipline is no place for a quota system. Then, we would have to figure out how to improve the behavior of the students, not simply reduce the severity of the punishments that are given (which Gwinnett did with its new discipline policy last year). And if you don’t believe that misbehaviors often go unpunished, then you have not been in schools recently. That’s like saying the only people speeding are the ones who get tickets. Give ME a break!

Finally, I take no drugs of any kind to be able to do my job. My students consistently have the highest CRCT scores of any subject and grade level at my school. My students behave because I expect them to and enforce the rules. I also write many fewer referrals (none last year) than my colleagues.

Please come and visit my classroom anytime. I have nothing to hide.

By justin

August 26, 2008 1:49 PM | Link to this

I am a fan of Alvin Wilbanks

By Cindy

August 26, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this

Justin, why don’t you enlighten us?…so we can be fans of his too. I’ll be the first to admit it when i’m wrong. :) Your turn…

By Cindy

August 27, 2008 1:09 PM | Link to this

I’m proud of Wilbanks for not caving in because of the pressure that was applied. I think it speaks volumes of his character.

By Cindy

August 28, 2008 3:07 PM | Link to this

This is nonsense and I don’t like it.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/08/28/wilbanks_gwinnett.html