The School to Prison Pipeline.

As a future educator, this topic is still very close to my heart. To see and research how the system is sending our students from schools to prisons breaks my heart. If I could educate everyone on the importance of this topic, I would, but since I am not able to, lets just start here.

As slaves, African Americans were not given the human right to attend school and seek out a basic education. Laws were put into place to make sure that blacks had no ability to attend school, and in 1831, North Carolina passed laws making it illegal if one were to teach a black person, free or enslaved, how to read or write. Following that, in 1847, Virginia passed a law stating, “Any white person who shall assemble with slaves, [or] free negroes . . . for the purpose of instructing them to read or write, . . . shall be punished by confinement in the jail . . . and by fine . . .” (Brown v. Board). During the civil war, an army captain by the name of Vincent Colyer saved the lives of many African Americans. He found that they needed something more than food and clothes, they needed an education. On July 23, 1863, Colyer opened the first school for the free in North Carolina (Sandifer). People started to realize that black children had the right to attend schools just as much as the white children, but that did not mean that it would be a fair and equal opportunity. Teachers had white and blacks sitting at the desks in their classrooms, but for the most part they did not see them as equal. The color of a child's skin determined how the rest of their life was going to be, regardless of all having the ability to attend school. Teachers treated students of color with disrespect, as if they were less than or did not have the capacity to be knowledgeable students. 

From the moment blacks were given the right to attend school, the school to prison pipeline was born. This is why it is important to know the history of blacks and schools, and realize that it’s when the pipeline started and has not ended ever since. Nicki Cole, a journalist and professor at University of California defines the school to prison pipeline as the following, “A process through which students are pushed out of schools and into prisons. In other words, it is a process of criminalizing youth that is carried out by disciplinary policies and practices within schools that put students into contact with law enforcement” (Cole). Students attend schools to get their basic education in order to go on to succeed and achieve their goals, yet they are being directed right to jails and prisons. What we do in our classrooms and how we interact and treat each student has this kind of an impact on them: we determine their future. 

We went to Shiloh Park Elementary School in Zion, IL to speak with some of the social workers and teachers in order to better understand the different actions that can be taken in order to counteract the policies that promote the school to prison pipeline. The majority of the school’s population is black and hispanic students, and with 85% of the student population listed as low income, which is marginally larger than the district’s percentage of low income students. Overall, the school is underperforming, and has almost a 30% report of chronic absenteeism. The schools social workers have been working on educating the administration and the teachers on the best practices in order to help their students rather than reinforce the internalized belief that if you’re a minority and from a low income family, you cannot succeed.

At Shiloh Park Elementary Hannah sat down with the schools two social workers to better understand why the school to prison pipeline was still an occurrence that we mostly see happening with minority students, and how schools would be able to interfere with it. For one, a senate bill was passed in 2015 which eliminated the zero tolerance policy in Illinois, which forces schools to limit suspensions that are longer than three days only to students who pose a threat to the school. If they needed a longer suspension, the school is required to provide support services while they are gone. In the case of the Shiloh Park school, they try their best to never suspend students, but rather provide additional resources for both the student and the teacher. Both social workers have noticed over the course of their time working with students that there isn’t much patience for students with behavioral problems, usually the teachers are already dealing with larger classroom sizes that sending the student down to the office for a punishment is easier than taking time away from their other students to help the one student. This sets the student apart from their peers, and can be isolating, which is why the social workers believe that there needs to be more resources within the schools to help both the student and the teacher if you truly want to ensure the student is receiving the education that’s provided. By having overworked teachers, who have no one they can turn to for help with their students, that can lead to certain “problematic” students falling through the cracks of the education system. 

Despite the classroom problems, some innovative disciplinary policies at Shiloh is that they set up personal meeting with the students on Saturdays to give them time away from home and a comfortable safe space they can come to whenever they need to talk, or let someone in on if there are any unknown issues occuring. They also have a Youth in Service program which is still relatively new to the school, this way instead of having unproductive punishments, the school pushes students to get involved with their community and gives them more time to connect with other students and staff members who may be joining them. They have also implemented “restorative practices” which is when they gently reintroduce a student to their class if they have been out for a while. It isn’t a sudden reimmersion to their class, but rather they have circle time to freely express their feelings and opinions with zero judgement from the social worker or teacher. This can be done as a whole class or in small groups of peers, whichever the affected student feels would be most beneficial to them.

Another important aspect of the school to prison pipeline is the police presence in schools. While it may not be as evident in the Shiloh Park school, since the kids are so young, Hannah recalls how her high school always had two officers who were required to be in her school everyday. There had even been a few arrests that were made in public, and in the age of social media, that information was spread around quickly. Which goes to the next point both social workers had made, that the relationship police decide to build with students will shape how these students view officers of the law. Being arrested or reprimanded in front of your peers is humiliating, and creates a sense of distrust rather than improve the students bad behavior. It has been proven time and time again that “scaring students straight” is not actually productive or effective. This can be seen in the D.A.R.E program, and how it exposed children to drugs that they normally would not be aware of. The earliest study on how counterproductive the program was in 1992. Rather than focusing on how to scare students away, the school’s social workers  suggest that police should visit and show that they are regular people who simply want to help the community too. By creating a personal image of police, students are more likely to go to them if they need help. But they argued that only under extreme circumstances should the police ever arrest a student on campus, or in front of their peers. Rather they should conduct themselves to be calm in an effort to not embarrass students which would ultimately create that sense of distrust and prejudice.

The school to prison pipeline affects black and latino students more than it affects anyone 

else, “The school-to-prison pipeline primarily captures and affects Black students, which mirrors the over-representation of this group in America's prisons and jails” (Cole). Mainly students of color, and students in poverty are put into the school to prison pipeline, being punished more and being put down by teachers and administrators. A principal at Dunbar Elementary stated, “I feel like a lot of black males want to prove to their friends that they are tough and so that leads to a lot of different things. Part of that is just a defense mechanism, acting tough and ending up doing things you shouldn't do.” Once students have this idea of “it does not matter I will get in trouble anyway” that is when they are funneled through the pipeline. The action of the school to prison pipeline occurs when teachers or administration, punish children of color or on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum. This continuous punishment, and lack of support with those students, brainwashes them to think they are less than and bad, which in turn influences the decisions that they make later on in life. Students are being pushed out of the educational system and straight into the criminal justice system. 

Race is a large factor that comes into play when looking at school to prison statistics. Some may say that race does not strictly define the students who go through the pipeline but, in 2010, “Black students made up only 18 percent of students in public schools and accounted for 40 percent of students who received one or more out-of-school suspensions” (Tyner). Students of color, have more of a disadvantage in the school systems. These students are targeted through detentions, expulsions, suspensions, and unfair treatment within the classrooms. ACLU states that by having cops in our schools, these children are being punished for behavior that should be resolved at school. A study showed that the students who were suspended or expelled for a discretionary violation were 3 times more likely to be exposed with the juvenile justice system the following year (School to Prison). The constant punishment of students of color leads them directly to dropping out or repeating a grade, which in turn leads them to have problems with the criminal justice system. Lead in, “Students who are suspended are more likely to repeat a grade or drop out than students who were not. A study in Texas looked at data from every seventh grader in the state in the years 2000, 2001, and 2002. They then tracked their academic and disciplinary records for six years. They found that 31 percent of students who were suspended or expelled repeated a grade, compared with only 5 percent of students who weren't [suspended]” (Nelson). Many may wonder, why have we let the school to prison pipeline get so bad, but as future educators we can make small changes that will one day save these children from the pipeline. 

There are many things that we can do to disrupt the school to prison pipeline. First off, the school administration and staff need to understand that police officers should be the last resort, not the first response to a situation. When a child does cause problems in the classroom, police officials should not have to be notified nor do they have to deal with the child unless the student a threat to themselves or their peers. One of the main ways schools feed into the pipeline, is by having the law deal with students before we give them the chance. It is common for school officers to only see the threat of a student acting up or engaging in physical fights because the ways that police officers and teachers are taught to perceive bad behavior are completely different. Teachers try to understand why a student is acting out and try to reason with their student, while police officers are trying to create a safe environment without any disruptions. A student in California recalls a time when she used self defense and got the short end of the stick. “Maryjane Davis, 17,  knows how it feels to be treated like a criminal at school. When a classmate picked a fight, striking her twice, Davis swung back. Davis claimed self defense, but the school officer who broke up the fight arrested her and sent her straight to juvenile hall—without, she said, even calling her parents first” (Stoebig). This threw Davis into the pipeline, exposing her to the disciplinary system, which will set a precedent for future consequences and police relations. When something like this does occur, we need to sit the children down and sort out punishment, instead of having officers arrest and send them straight to juvie. 

Secondly, we need to look at different ways of punishment for students who do struggle with behavioral issues in our classroom and schools. Dr. Brenda Lewis, an assistant superintendent at Kern High School District stated that by changing the way the school deals with behavior, they went from 1,096 students being suspended in the 2010-2011 school year, to 66 total expulsions in the 2014-2015 school-year (Stoebig). This is done by incorporating methods such as the “On-Campus Intervention Program (OCIP) and Consistency Management and Cooperative Discipline (CMCD) program are alternative approaches to suspension and expulsion that have the ability to create a shift from a punitive learning environment to one that is warm and welcoming for all students” (Cheek). Such methods pushes students to learn from mistakes instead of being punished for them. Tyner said it best when he stated that in order to get rid of the pipeline, we need to “Create positive climates and focus on prevention. Develop clear, appropriate, and consistent expectations and consequences to address disruptive student behaviors (improve behavior, increase engagement, boost achievement). Ensure fairness, equity, and continuous improvement” (Tyner).

Significant areas where we will be seeing the school to prison pipeline is our classroom. We all are most likely coming in with our own biases and can see some our students differently based on their skin color or their personal background. One of the best ways . Students who have already fallen through the cracks may start to withdraw from their classes. If you have students who seem to no longer care about their schoolwork or are acting out, that may be their way of showing you that they need the extra attention and love, for someone to show them that they can still be successful students. 

While there is not a ton that we can control outside of our classrooms, if we see a student who is constantly getting in trouble outside of our classroom, we can still take time to pull them aside and have a conversation. Not all solutions require complex answers, sometimes all a student wants is to voice their thoughts without consequences, and by providing an open ear, we can help these students work out their own problems without needing to involve people who the students may not trust yet. Often times, it will be easy to notice which students are likely to start slipping into the school to prison pipeline because you will be able to track their behavior habits and their school work. The best way to help them is to remain open minded to their situation and ask them if they need to talk to you. If you try forcing them to talk, they will likely feel corners into speaking to you and won’t truly open up. Like most important things, this will take time. But by simply being there, being open minded, and being supportive of your students, you can help not only the students who have started to fall through the cracks, but you can also completely end this process of criminalizing minority youth in your classroom.

References:

Brown v. Board at Fifty: “With an Even Hand” A Century of Racial Segregation. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-segregation.html

Cheek, K., & Bucchio, J. (2017, September 07). School-to-Prison Pipeline Can Be Dismantled Using Alternative Discipline Strategies. Retrieved April 19, 2019, from https://jjie.org/2017/09/07/alternative-discipline-strategies-for-dismantling-the-school-to-prison-pipeline/

Cole, N. L., Ph.D. (2019, January 25). Understanding the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://www.thoughtco.com/school-to-prison-pipeline-4136170

Nelson, L., & Lind, D. (2015, February 24). The school to prison pipeline, explained - Justice Policy Institute. Retrieved April 23, 2019, from http://www.justicepolicy.org/news/8775

Sandifer, A., & Renfer, B. D. (2003, January 1). Schools For Freed Peoples. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://www.ncpedia.org/education/freed-people's

SHILOH PARK ELEM SCHOOL. Retrieved April 26, 2019, from https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/School.aspx?source=studentcharacteristics&Schoolid=340490060022005

School-to-Prison Pipeline. (n.d.). Retrieved April 23, 2019, from https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline/school-prison-pipeline-infographic

Stoebig, K., & Vega, M. M. (2017, July 24). 5 ways to end the school to prison pipeline. Retrieved April 20, 2019, from https://splinternews.com/5-ways-to-end-the-school-to-prison-pipeline-1793857087

Tyner, A. R. (2017, August 15). The Emergence of the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Retrieved April 23, 2019, from https://www.americanbar.org/groups/gpsolo/publications/gpsolo_ereport/2014/june_2014/the_emergence_of_the_school-to-prison_pipeline/

Elias, M. (2013). The School-to-Prison Pipeline Policies and practices that favor incarceration over education do us all a grave injustice. Teaching Tolerance. Retrieved from: https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-2013/the-school-to-prison-pipeline