The Children Left Behind: How Zero Tolerance Impacts Our Most Vulnerable Youth

The Michigan Journal of Race & Law Symposium, February 8th and 9th, 2002, at the University of Michigan examined the issue: Separate but Unequal: The Status of America\u27s Public Schools. In the past, children of color were expressly denied an equal education on the basis of their race. Today\u27s policies deny many children of color access to educational programs and supports, for reasons that are neutral on their face, with devastating consequences to the students, their families and their communities. The following article explores the concerns and experiences of a public service agency with the growing application of Zero Tolerance policies and practices to schools and school children. The purpose of this article is to increase awareness of the nature and effects of zero tolerance policies and to explore the resultant issues that must be addressed. In the end, the persons most disproportionately affected include children of color but when zero tolerance policies result in a failure to educate some children, the consequences impact not only those children, but all of us

Overcoming a Lawyer\u27s Dogma: Examining Due Process for the Disruptive Student

This Note explores how traditional due process functions in the context of school expulsion hearings. Traditional due process is inadequate in the case of chronically disruptive students because these students have lost their property right in education long before the law requires a due process hearing. Instead, new avenues of due process that are better adapted to the educational setting must be explored. Lawyers should expect schools to identify students\u27 with behavioral problems before expulsion becomes imminent and assist students in overcoming these problems. This educational due process not only helps to protect troubled student\u27s education, but it is also an effective way to address the problem of violence in schools

Separate But Unequal: The Status of America\u27s Public Schools

Transcript of the symposium, which took place at the University of Michigan Law School on Saturday, February 9, 2002 in Hutchins Hall

Legitimacy in Social Reform Litigation: An Empirical Study

This Article undertakes a detailed examination of a single lawsuit, Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School Children v. Ann Arbor School District Board. This study first explores the diversity of interests present among both the plaintiff and defendant groups in King, and analyzes the performance of the attorneys in representing these interests. The Article then turns to the problems of resistance that arise at the decree stage in social reform litigation, and presents an empirical evaluation of the factors influencing the response to judicially mandated relief

Foreword, Separate but Unequal: The Status of America\u27s Public Schools

This Symposium, convened by the Michigan Journal of Race & Law, was designed to address many of the issues raised by Donny Gonzalez, a student at a Washington, D.C. high school, on the subject of poverty and race and its effects on school-aged youth. Bringing together a diverse group of speakers and attracting a broad cross-section of the university and Ann Arbor communities, the Separate but Unequal Symposium addressed a range of issues, including: the ongoing relevance of integration, the role of charter schools and other alternative programs, and promising strategies for achieving greater educational equality. A theme linking these various topics was the question of what students could do to end separate and unequal schools in America

How Masculinities Distribute Power: The Influence of Ann Scales

Ann Scales\u27s scholarship on masculinities in relation to sexual assault and militarism prompted us to consider exactly how power is distributed by assumptions about what is masculine. For instance, men privileged by association with hegemonic masculinities — those most dominant and preferred — are sometimes excused for acts of violence against people who are denigrated as unmasculine or excessively masculine. In one set of examples, communities excuse football players for sexual assaults on grounds that boys will be boys. The implication is that boys should be allowed to act out before taking on adult responsibilities, and that they need to do so in order to become men. Moreover, the boys will be boys narrative suggests the victims were asking for it. In another set of examples, certain types of men are granted exemptions from the normal rules of self-defense because they are seen as manly protectors of their communities. Men such as George Bush and George Zimmerman are allowed to preemptively strike men such as Saddam Hussein and Trayvon Martin because the latter\u27s denigrated masculinities suggested they were asking for it. Scholars should continue to explore the ways such hierarchies of masculinities distribute privileges and vulnerabilities

Briefs

Michigan Law Review celebrates first 100 years; Separate but unequal: America\u27s public schools; Students\u27 work contributes to Refugee Convention discussio

Starting Again in the Middle: The Middle Start Initiative

Combines responses garnered from a series of surveys of middle-grade teachers, administrators, and students from 224 schools and other available information to describe Michigan middle graders and their school experiences