Black students have a 17% chance of being suspended. Suppose two separate Black students get called to the principal's office. Let’s explore the probability of both students receiving the same outcome, meaning either both students get suspended or neither student gets suspended. We will assume that the students’ visits to the principal are for separate offenses. What is the probability that both students are suspended?

\begin{equation*} P(\text{both suspended})=\frac{17}{100}\cdot\frac{17}{100}=\frac{289}{10000}=0.0289 \end{equation*}

What is the probability that neither student is suspended?

First, we need to know the probability of not being suspended. Recall, this is called the complement.

\begin{equation*} 1-\frac{17}{100}=\frac{83}{100} \end{equation*}

Now, we can use this to calculate the probability of neither being suspended when called to the principal’s office.

\begin{equation*} P(\text{neither suspended})=\frac{83}{100}\cdot\frac{83}{100}=\frac{6889}{10000}=0.6889 \end{equation*}

When we have independent events that occur in a sequence, we use multiplication to help us determine the probability. These are the essential mathematical pieces that we need to help us evaluate claims about the school to prison pipeline. Let’s dig a little deeper.