Favoritism in Schools

Favoritism in Schools

When I think about discrimination, the one issue that sticks out in my mind is the favoritism shown towards athletes in school. Discrimination is the process in which two stimuli differing in some aspect are treated differently, and favoritism is the showing of being partial to. This type of discrimination could range from how their disciplined if they get into trouble compared to others, to how they receive special help in the classroom with there grades. The thing is athletes are no different than anyone else, they put there pants on the same way as everyone else, one leg at a time.

In a survey done at Salem High School it showed that eighty six percent of 260 students questioned said that teachers showed favoritism by stereotyping, and all the students agreed that this favoritism was mostly regarded to the football team and privileges that they could receive outside the classroom. There was also the mention of all the extra help that the athletes would receive on there classroom work.

At a case reported in Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii there is more of an issue of favoritism shown in the disciplinary issues for athletes. A seventeen year old girl had to file a suit with the U.S. District Courts because the school failed to do what was necessary with the problem. The people involved were football players and the only action taken was suspending them for one game. So the harassment continued.

In some cases its not only the schools that show favoritism, in Detroit four football players allegedly raped a fourteen year old girl and the school took charge and removed them from regular classes and the team pending a hearing. At the hearing the judge ruled that the athletes should have been giving a fair warning and reinstated them, and they didn’t even miss one game.

In an interview I condoned I found that favoritism towards athletes is pretty common. I talked to a couple of High School Football Players, and they said that in one case at the school they went to there had been five males charged with sexual harassment.