Valued Voices
Thursday, April 29 2010
by Frank Stasio and Lindsay Thomas
Chris Harper plays Jamal Harris, a repeat 9th grader, in Jean Rohr's "Valued Voices."
North Carolina schools suspend more students than most other states. Each year, nearly 11 percent of kids lose time in the classroom as punishment for violating school policies. The overwhelming majority of those students are African-American boys. Some districts are rethinking the suspension approach to disciplining children, but it will take a lot of financial support from taxpayers to offer enough resources and alternatives to sending students home. Elon University Professor of Education Jean Rohr has thought a lot about the issues of race and class surrounding school suspensions. She's written a play on the topic called "Valued Voices" that will debut this weekend in the Triad. Rohr and Jane Wettach, director of the Duke University Children's Law Clinic, join host Frank Stasio to talk about the existing disciplinary obstacles that deny some children the right to an education.
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