Eliminations of Ds and Fs on grading scales

So this topic was sparked from the "i aint got no pencil" post.

When i was a freshman in high school. The high school i went to was considerably underprivileged (to say the least). The entire school was made up mainly of a variety of minorities, the teachers were on strike 80% of the time, AND the school had decided to eliminate Ds and Fs from the grading system.

They're reasoning, "to motivate students to try harder, and move onto a 4 year college or seek higher education"

The outcome: over half of the freshman class was ranking at Non Proficient. The teachers were rarely there, substitutes ran the class rooms. And students were expected to do workbooks as classwork, homework and study material. Students who scored under 69% were technically "failing"

Sophmore year, i moved schools and cities. And while technically i was supposed to be helf back, i was tested and passed so they placed me in the appropriate classes. Unlike my last school the teachers loved to be there. My grades shot up. And i was reveiving at least a B average.

The other day i was talking with a teacher that works at a high school in Crenshaw,CA and he was telling me that their grading system is the same as my freshman year. I couldnt believe it. Im 26 now, and that grading scale didnt work back then idk how people expected it to work out now. We continued talking and i couldnt help but feel like this grading system is extremely oppressive.

I started reading articles about it and the teachers and reps quoted in these articals already have preconceived opinions about what a "typical D and F student" is. One even said " these students waltz into class 10 minutes late and blink at you for an hour and get a D." Thid very ideology reminded me of the scene in Freedom Writers where the tenured teacher was nit picking the other students. is this what these teachers are thinking about your kids in real life??

After speaking with this teacher, he mentioned a lot of underprivileged schools have this grading system. Now im not exactly sure if its working as it says it should but from my experience, it doesnt.

So, with that said, i have a few questions for you guys. Main one being do you agree with this grading scale?

We have all heard of the School to Prison pipeline. I cant help but wonder if this grading scale has anything to do with it. Is it discouraging kids to apply themselves? Is this a discriminatory grading scale in that it stereotypes D/F students as lazy and unmotivated? Why is this mainly implemented in Underprivileged areas?