The School-to-Prison Pipeline PDF

38 T each i n g To l e r a n ce The School-to-Prison Pipeline POLICIES AND PRACTICES THAT FAVOR INCARCERATION OVER EDUCATION DO US ALL A GRAVE INJUSTICE. By Marilyn Elias illustration by chris buzelli In Meridi...

38 T each i n g To l e r a n ce The School-to-Prison Pipeline POLICIES AND PRACTICES THAT FAVOR INCARCERATION OVER EDUCATION DO US ALL A GRAVE INJUSTICE. By Marilyn Elias illustration by chris buzelli In Meridian, Miss., police routinely arrest NAACP and Dignity in Schools—offered and transport youths to a juvenile deten- testimony during the hearing. They joined tion center for minor classroom misbehav- representatives from the Departments of iors. In Jefferson Parish, La., according to a Education and Justice to shine a national U.S. Department of Justice complaint, school spotlight on a situation viewed far too often officials have given armed police “unfettered as a local responsibility. authority to stop, frisk, detain, question, “We have a national problem that deserves search and arrest schoolchildren on and off federal action,” Matthew Cregor, an attor- school grounds.” In Birmingham, Ala., police ney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, officers are permanently stationed in nearly explained. “With suspension a top predictor The Odds every high school. of dropout, we must confront this practice if Students Suspended During In fact, hundreds of school districts across we are ever to end the ‘dropout crisis’ or the the 2009-2010 School Year the country employ discipline policies that so-called achievement gap.” push students out of the classroom and In the words of Vermont’s Sen. Patrick Black students (1 in 6) into the criminal justice system at alarming Leahy, “As a nation, we can do better.” American Indian students (1 in 13) rates—a phenomenon known as the school- to-prison pipeline. What is the School-to-Prison Pipeline? Latino students (1 in 14) Last month, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Policies that encourage police presence at held the first federal hearing on the school- schools, harsh tactics including physical White students (1 in 20) to-prison pipeline—an important step toward restraint, and automatic punishments that ending policies that favor incarceration over result in suspensions and out-of-class time education and disproportionately push are huge contributors to the pipeline, but the Asian students (1 in 50) minority students and students with disabil- problem is more complex than that. ities out of schools and into jails. The school-to-prison pipeline starts (or is In opening the hearing, Durbin told best avoided) in the classroom. When com- the subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary bined with zero-tolerance policies, a teacher’s Committee, “For many young people, our decision to refer students for punishment can schools are increasingly a gateway to the crim- mean they are pushed out of the classroom— inal justice system. This phenomenon is a con- and much more likely to be introduced into sequence of a culture of zero tolerance that is the criminal justice system. widespread in our schools and is depriving many children of their fundamental right to Who’s in the Pipeline? an education.” Students from two groups—racial minorities A wide array of organizations—includ- and children with disabilities—are dispropor- ing the Southern Poverty Law Center, the tionately represented in the school-to-prison spring 2013 39 Avoiding pipeline. African-American students, for Justice, the number of school resource offi- instance, are 3.5 times more likely than their cers rose 38 percent between 1997 and 2007. the Pipeline white classmates to be suspended or expelled, Jerri Katzerman, SPLC deputy legal direc- How can school according to a nationwide study by the U.S. tor, said this surge in police on campus has districts divert the Department of Education Office for Civil helped to criminalize many students and fill school-to-prison Rights. Black children constitute 18 percent the pipeline. pipeline? of students, but they account 46 percent of One 2005 study found that children are 1. Increase the use those suspended more than once. far more likely to be arrested at school than of positive behavior For students with disabilities, the num- they were a generation ago. The vast major- interventions and bers are equally troubling. One report found ity of these arrests are for nonviolent offenses. supports. that while 8.6 percent of public school chil- In most cases, the students are simply being dren have been identified as having disabili- disruptive. And a recent U.S. Department of 2. Compile annual ties that affect their ability to learn, these stu- Education study found that more than 70 per- reports on the total dents make up 32 percent of youth in juvenile cent of students arrested in school-related number of disci- detention centers. incidents or referred to law enforcement are plinary actions that The racial disparities are even starker for black or Hispanic. Zero-tolerance policies, push students out of the classroom students with disabilities. About 1 in 4 black which set one-size-fits-all punishments for based on gender, children with disabilities were suspended a variety of behaviors, have fed these trends. race and ability. at least once, versus 1 in 11 white students, according to an analysis of the government Best Practices 3. Create agree- report by Daniel J. Losen, director of the Instead of pushing children out, Katzerman ments with police Center for Civil Rights Remedies of the Civil said, “Teachers need a lot more support and departments and Rights Project at UCLA. training for effective discipline, and schools court systems to A landmark study published last year need to use best practices for behavior mod- limit arrests at tracked nearly 1 million Texas students for ification to keep these kids in school where school and the use of restraints, at least six years. The study controlled for they belong.” such as mace and more than 80 variables, such as socioeco- Keeping at-risk kids in class can be a handcuffs. nomic class, to see how they affected the like- tough order for educators under pressure to lihood of school discipline. The study found meet accountability measures, but classroom 4. Provide sim- that African Americans were disproportion- teachers are in a unique position to divert stu- ple explanations of ately punished compared with otherwise sim- dents from the school-to-prison pipeline. infractions and pre- ilar white and Latino students. Children with Teachers know their students better than scribed responses in emotional disabilities also were dispropor- any resource officer or administrator—which the student code of tionately suspended and expelled. puts them in a singularly empowered posi- conduct to ensure fairness. In other studies, Losen found racial differ- tion to keep students in the classroom. It’s not ences in suspension rates have widened since easy, but when teachers take a more respon- 5. Create appropri- the early 1970s and that suspension is being sive and less punitive approach in the class- ate limits on the use used more frequently as a disciplinary tool. room, students are more likely to complete of law enforcement But he said his recent study and other research their education. in public schools. show that removing children from school does The information on the following pages not improve their behavior. Instead, it greatly highlights common scenarios that push young 6. Train teachers on the use of positive increases the likelihood that they’ll drop out people into the school-to-prison pipeline and behavior supports and wind up behind bars. offers practical advice for how teachers can for at-risk students. dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. Punishing Policies The SPLC advocates for changes to end the school-to-prison pipeline and has filed lawsuits or civil rights complaints against Toolkit districts with punitive discipline prac- Want to deepen your understanding of the tices that are discriminatory in impact. school-to-prison pipeline? According to the U.S. Department of visit>> tolerance.org/school-to-prison-pipeline 40 T each i n g To l e r a n ce