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SACRAMENTO -- A discussion was held Wednesday about a difficult reality in the Sacramento City Unified School District revolving around black boys being seen through a biased lens.

It's a lens that puts them on suspension and out of class more often than anywhere else in the state.

"This is not a beat up on white people conversation ... " researcher Dr. Tyrone Howard told a crowd gathered at McClatchy High School to review the findings of his report. "This is about beating up on a mindset that exists across the board that continues to undermine the potential and realness of young black minds."

Mellonie Richardson brought her third-grader, Preston. She hopes any educator anywhere would be able to see him as an individual.

"I want them to think about their own children. I want you to see my boy and I want you to think of your boy," she said.

It's that kind of consideration of sameness and value that "The Capitol of Suspensions" report shows is sorely lacking in the capital city.

Based on state data, it says black males are 5.4 times more likely to be suspended in Sacramento County than the California average. SCUSD has suspended just over 20 percent of its black male students.

With almost 25,000 more black boys, the latest available data shows the Los Angeles district only suspends almost 3 percent of that same population.

Researchers say implicit bias causes the same behavior out of black and white students to be regarded differently.

"One boy may receive praise, 'Oh yeah, good job, keep going.' While the other may be viewed with caution and told 'slow down' or reprimanded and put off to the side," described Dr. Luke Wood, co-author of the report.

"Teachers look at black children and they automatically assume that based upon their skin and nothing else that they're defiant," he continued. "And it's because they're viewed through this lens of criminality. And we see the same thing with policing as we do with schooling."

Perhaps the worst impact of all this is on the most vulnerable or the youngest students.

For black boys in kindergarten through third grade, the NAACP commissioned research shows they are 9.9 times more likely to be suspended in comparison with the state average, which is around 1.1 percent.

It's a circumstance the authors of the report say is especially damaging at that stage.

"Because at that stage they're developing their formative experiences in education," Wood said. "They're starting to see is school something I want to do? Is learning fun? So they're making decisions that will affect the rest of their academic trajectories."

SCUSD's superintendent also spoke at the discussion on Wednesday.

"Certainly the results are very alarming and very disturbing as well, which is why we're all here," said Superintendent Jorge Aguilar. "This is an issue of social justice."

Justice, according to Aguilar, that isn't being delivered given the numbers in the suspension report.

The district is forming a task force right now to do just that. It will include voices from the public, the nonprofit world and businesses, as well as educators and parents.

Aguilar hopes for the group to create a plan to help solve the suspension problem by December.

The full "The Capitol of Suspensions" report is available online.