http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295372,00.html

Cop Suspended by Houston School District Over 'Ghetto Handbook'

Friday, August 31, 2007

HOUSTON - A school district suspended a police officer as it
investigates his distribution of a "Ghetto Handbook" and the three-
month lapse before top district officials were informed of it.

The eight-page booklet, subtitled "Wucha dun did now?", was handed out
to about 15 Houston Independent School District police officers at a
May meeting, district spokesman Terry Abbott said. Officials declined
to identify the officer who handed them out, but said he had been
ordered to attend diversity training.

A supervisor immediately collected the booklets, Abbott said, but
district officials said they didn't learn about the incident until
someone complained to the district's Equal Employment Opportunity
Office in mid-August.

"This publication was completely reprehensible and HISD condemns it in
the strongest possible terms," Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said
in a written statement Thursday.

He said he has "mounted a very aggressive investigation."

District Police Chief Charles Wiley had no comment, Abbott said.

The booklet billed itself as a guide to Ebonics, teaching the reader
to speak "as if you just came out of the hood." It included
definitions such as "foty: a 40-ounce bottle of beer"; "aks: to ask a
question"; and "hoodrat: scummy girl."

The booklet names six district officers "and the entire day shift
patrol" as contributors. Abbott said a preliminary investigation has
cleared those officers of involvement.

Last year, almost 30 percent of the district's 202,000 students were
black and almost 60 percent were Hispanic.

Carol Mims Galloway, president of the Houston NAACP chapter, said the
officer who created the book should be severely punished or fired.

"It was really a slap in the African-American community's face," said
Galloway, who is running for the school board.

"We're paying their salaries with our tax dollars," Galloway said of
the district police. "It does reflect on the district."

School board member Larry Marshall said the document was
inappropriate, even if it was meant to be a joke.

"These are very racially sensitive times," he said. "It was a huge
mistake in judgment."