A growing issue in primary and secondary schools nationwide
is the school to prison pipeline. For those of you not familiar with it, it is
a reference to the “policies and practices that push our nation’s schoolchildren,
especially our most at-risk children, out of classrooms and into the juvenile
and criminal justice systems. This pipeline reflects the prioritization of
incarceration over education”. These policies have a strong emphasis on discipline
instead of education, where students are not allowed to attend school. If and when
the student returns to school, they are behind on their schoolwork which brings
down their grades. As you can imagine, these punishments have a strong detrimental
effect on the student’s performance, and can increase the likelihood of school disengagement
and drop-outs.
There are many statistics that show that as a whole, children
of color (especially African-Americans) receive more punitive judgment than their
white peers. With harsh disciplinary school policies, such as the zero
tolerance policy, these children are being suspended and expelled for minor
offenses and sometimes for doing nothing at all. For example, in 2014 there was
a 12 year old African-American girl who faced expulsion and criminal charges
for writing the word “hi” on a locker room wall. This punishment was much more
severe than her white female classmate who was also involved in this act. In
Florida, a 12 year old African-American girl was told by the administrators at
her private school that she would either have to stop wearing her hair
naturally or she would be expelled. Here is a more local example: at a public school here in
Memphis, there was a young black girl who was sitting in a classroom alone
doing work. Two other students came in, vandalized the room, then quickly left.
Automatically, the school administration blamed the young girl for the
vandalism and suspended her for two weeks from school without giving her a fair
trial. When the girl returned two weeks later, the administration watched the
surveillance cameras and realized that the girl had been telling the truth all
along, but by then the damage had already been done.
Oftentimes when we discuss the issue of the school to prison
pipeline, we automatically think of males, due to their higher rates of incarceration,
especially amongst African-Americans. Females are a neglected population that
is discussed, even though black females have extremely high rates of disproportionate
punitive judgment as well. Data from the US Department of Education shows that
black girls were suspended six times more than white girls, while black boys
were suspended three times as often as white boys. Some factors that could affect
girls’ performance in school are: trauma, sexual assault/harassment, caretaking
responsibilities, pregnancy/parenting, discomfort with high levels of school
security, being overlooked and undervalued, and more.
Rather than putting emphasis on discipline, schools need to
be more receptive of the student and other factors from their personal life.
Instead of jumping straight to suspension and expulsion, there are other
alternatives that could be utilized such as tutoring or counseling services. Also,
these schools should not racialize these incidents and base the disciplinary decision
according to the student’s ethnicity. For cases where suspension is decided to
be the necessary course of action, more guidance and academic help should be included,
such as schools with in-school-suspension.
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Here are some sources with more information on the issue discussed here:
School to Prison Pipeline: https://www.aclu.org/fact-sheet/what-school-prison-pipeline
Girls in the School to Prison Pipeline: http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/sites/default/files/uploads/BlackGirlsMatter_Report.pdf
"Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools" by Monique W. Morris
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Here are some sources with more information on the issue discussed here:
School to Prison Pipeline: https://www.aclu.org/fact-sheet/what-school-prison-pipeline
Girls in the School to Prison Pipeline: http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/sites/default/files/uploads/BlackGirlsMatter_Report.pdf
"Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools" by Monique W. Morris
In analyzing what drives the school to prison pipeline one must consider systematic racism as well as sexism as well as stereotyping. Society teaches children, white or minority, how to think about different races and cultures. At ages as young as 3 years old, children are able to acknowledge the racial hierarchy; white is desirable and minority races somehow aren't. In addition children are taught specific ways to act and based on their race. Even in adhering to the social norms (or whiteness) minority groups continue to be at a disadvantage. Black girls are loud and sassy, black boys are violent and sexually threatening, "Mexican" girls are hyper-sexualized, and so many more assumptions surrounding minority groups. The teachers and administrators have spent their entire lives learning what to think about each minority group and how to treat/react them. On the other side, the students receiving that treatment are caught in a state of despair.So, the problem does not lie solely in the disciplinary system, but also in the accepted norms and beliefs of society.
ReplyDelete4.) This “pipeline” should not be seen as a detrimental stigma to our educational system. It is a reflection of what our nation stands for, justice. It is the responsibility of the individual to do the right thing. If the individual does not choose to do the right thing that is their own choice to rob themselves of the potentially lucrative, profitable, and successful futures. We do in fact need to prioritize incarceration over education. This can actually be seen as a failure within our own education system. Since grade school, children are taught to be good people and respect the law to succeed in the world and be the best person they can be. The responsibility lies in the individuals in society. If these people, regardless of color, chose to disobey the law they should be punished accordingly. By saying that schools need to be more receptive to students and their personal life regarding the law is ridiculous. The law is the law and educating the youth and children of society to not break these laws is what really to be focusing on, keeping children and adults in school and not incarcerated.
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