Fox News hosts blames crime on lack of school suspensions
Will Cain claims schools are not allowed to exceed “an acceptable quota” of suspensions of Black or Hispanic students
Published
Citation From the June 5, 2022, edition of Fox News' Fox and Friends Sunday
RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY (CO-HOST): You know, what really troubles me, Will, is what you brought up about what’s happening in school, that they’re no longer — you know, the classrooms in Manhattan, for example. There have been reports here and stories in the newspaper, of parents just really beside themselves at how unruly and even violent so many of these classrooms have become, because the schools refuse to take those who are disrupting and causing mayhem in the classroom out of the classroom.
What's curious to me is how much of this is because of restorative justice, that they want to sort of mete out these — or how much of it is also because they’re afraid that they — if they punish somebody and they’re a certain color or race, that they’ll be, you know, called out as a racist. So, you just wonder. I mean, we see this even with law enforcement lately. You know, how many police officers aren’t doing what they would normally do because they're like, “If this goes wrong in any way, I’m going to be holding the bag and there goes my career, there goes my retirement, I may end up in jail.” So, we’re just creating this environment.
WILL CAIN (CO-HOST): And you know, Rachel, it’s twofold. It is that individual officer going, “You know, if something goes wrong, I’m left holding the bag and I’m the one branded a racist.” But it’s also in the macro. In other words, those schools that you’re talking about, it’s reduced into numbers. And their boss at the school district goes, “Let me see, your numbers are up on suspensions for Black or Hispanic kids. What's going wrong?”
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Right.
CAIN: In other words, they’re exceeding an acceptable quota, which is totally removed from the actual incidents in the classroom.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Right.
CAIN: You see what I’m saying? So, it reduces human beings into a color-based statistic.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Right.
CAIN: And then, you’ve got to adapt the reality on the ground to what ends up on your stat sheet that's passed up the ladder.
PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST): Correct, because then the spokesman for the Department of Education in New York goes, “Well, our suspensions are down, schools are good —
CAMPOS-DUFFY: They’re doing great!
HEGSETH: “Everything is fine.” And the parents on the front lines are realizing it’s the exact opposite. Will, to your point, it's the Ferguson effect.