Equity & Diversity News in Brief

More Black Students Expelled Over Social-Media Use in Ala.

By Evie Blad — November 11, 2014 1 min read
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The Huntsville, Ala., district expelled 14 students last year based on the findings of a private contractor who monitored students’ social-media activity as part of greater school security efforts, according to a review by The Huntsville Times. Twelve of them were black, drawing concerns that the program unfairly targeted African-American students.

Overall, the district expelled 305 students last year, 238 of them black. Seventy-eight percent of all expulsions involved black children, in a system where 40 percent of students are black, the newspaper found. Expulsions related to social-media investigations were a small part of that total.

Superintendent Casey Wardynski said that security personnel had investigated the social-media accounts of 600 of the district’s 24,000 students since January.

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A version of this article appeared in the November 12, 2014 edition of Education Week as More Black Students Expelled Over Social-Media Use in Ala.

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