Quote of note:

Educators across the country have placed harsher penalties on students who bring guns and other dangerous weapons to school.

''There has been an increase in zero-tolerance measures and we make no excuses for it. We're entrusted with the safety of students when they're in our care,'' Garcia said.

But the report showed that less than 15 percent of the 2,500 Miami-Dade students arrested last year were charged with weapons- or drug-related offenses. About 10 percent of those arrested were under age 12.

Judith Browne, a senior attorney with the Advancement Project, said teachers are overreacting to minor offenses, especially with black males, who are viewed as a threat.

''They're seen as a criminal waiting to happen,'' she said.

Schools discipline blacks more than others
Black students are arrested, suspended and expelled at a higher rate than are other students, a study found.
BY PETER BAILEY

Racial profiling permeates South Florida classrooms, as black students face suspension, expulsion and arrest at the hands of color-coded justice, a study says.

Citing a recent report from the Advancement Project, a civic group based in Washington, officials say that black students are disproportionately suspended, expelled and arrested in comparison to white classmates.

Last year, Miami-Dade school police arrested about 2,500 students, an increase of 50 percent from two years ago. More than 50 percent of those arrested were black, even though black students make up only 28 percent of county enrollment.

In the 2003-2004 school year, black elementary students were five times more likely to be suspended than their white classmates.

NAACP officials say the numbers show a school system stained by racism.

''There's an institutionalized racism at work,'' said state NAACP President Adora Obi Nweze. ``The bottom line is that the NAACP will take the lead and expose this for what it is.''

The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is holding public hearings in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties throughout the week. A team of lawyers from the NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Advancement Project will offer legal representation to students who contend they were wrongfully penalized.

The group has already held hearings in Hillsborough and Duval counties. ''There is a difference in the way they treat African-American children as opposed to the way they treat white children for the same offenses,'' Nweze said.

Miami-Dade officials admit that disparities exist and that schools Police Chief Gerald Darling, Associate Superintendent Freddie Woodson and Superintendent Rudy Crew, all of whom are black, are sensitive to the issue.