District of Despair: On a Montana Reservation, Schools Favor Whites Over Native Americans

[TexasTowelie]

The faint scars on Ruth Fourstar’s arms testify to a difficult life on Fort Peck Indian Reservation — the physical and emotional abuse at home, the bullying at school, the self-harm that rotated her through mental health facilities and plunged her from the honor roll to a remedial program.

A diploma from Wolf Point High School could be the teenager’s ticket out of this isolated prairie town. Instead, she sees her school as a dead end.

The tutoring she was promised to get her back on track didn’t materialize. An agreement with the high school principal to let her apply credits earned in summer courses toward graduation fell through. The special education plan that the school district developed for her, supposedly to help her catch up, instead laid out how she should be disciplined. Her family fears that she will inflict the pain of not graduating on herself.

“I’m just there,” the 17-year-old said. “I feel invisible.”

Ruth’s despondency is shared by Native students in Wolf Point and across the nation. Often ignored in the national conversation about the public school achievement gap, they post some of the worst academic outcomes of any demographic group, a disparity exacerbated by decades of discrimination, according to federal reports. The population is also among the most at-risk: Underachievement and limited emotional support at school can contribute to a number of negative outcomes for Native youth, even suicide. Among people ages 18 to 24, Native Americans have the highest rate of suicide in the nation: 23 per 100,000, compared with 15 per 100,000 among white youths.

Read more: https://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/district-of-despair-on-a-montana-reservation-schools-favor-whites-over-native-americans/Content?oid=16526143

[Demovictory9]

1. "I'm not going to get into this Native American thing," says the superintendent Rob Osborne

Rob Osborne, who has been the superintendent of Wolf Point’s school district for the past two and a half years, said he’s read the board’s complaint three times but is not familiar enough with its contents to comment. He sees no purpose in comparing how the district treats Native and white students.

“I’m not going to get into this Native American thing,” he said. “All I’m trying to do is make sure all our kids have a quality education. And is there some discontent up there? Yeah, probably.”

[pazzyanne]

2. Systemic bias is never a good thing, and Betsy Devos is the wrong person...

to work on a plan to improve the learning environment in schools serving Native American kids. The struggle goes on, when it should have been dealt with in the long ago past. My Mom lived near an "open" Reservation in Minnesota. Listening to some of her friends discussing their Native American neighbors made my blood boil. I have friends who grew up on that reservation who are doing very well, but until prejudice is eliminated, and replaced with fact rather than speculation, improving the educational system in schools providing learning on/ near reservations will remain in the dark ages. Too bad that Betsy decided to "scale back" the Obama administrations efforts to improve the quality of education at local levels. Another thing for us to work on when we take back our legislative power. Need to work on that presidential take back so knowlegeable people can be appointed into leadership roles again.