Introduction
Schools are a valuable and frequently neglected place for studying children’s introductions to the juvenile justice system. Schools impart behavioral norms and expectations, and they provide passports for future academic and professional undertakings, both of which can be a predictor of the probability that youth become involved with the justice system. The reality is that far to often schools fail our youth by putting them on a path to prison rather them putting them on a path to becoming a productive, law-abiding contributing citizen to society. Experts in the field have argued that the ways in which schools identify and react to students’ misbehavior can increase youths risk of subsequent punishment, including involvement in the justice system. This tends to happen when students are suspended or expelled from schools, denied fundamental educational and social services, and referred to law enforcement for what are often minor transgressions. Hence, when students are regularly suspended, fail academically, habitually truant and have social, emotional, and educational needs neglected by the school, they become entangled in the criminal justice system. This phenomena, is referred to as the “school-to-prison-pipeline.”
In an effort to counteract this phenomena, advocates, scholars, teachers and other education professionals have started to consider what determinants put youth at risk of school discipline, as well as strategies that schools, districts, and policy makers could seek to disassemble this pipeline. Research consistently indicates that schools with positive, inclusive school climates have less crime and dysfunction than others. Essentially, behavior problems are lower in schools where students feel respected and listened to and where students feel intimate connections to teachers and other staff; when schools are a place of love, respect and involvement, they perform in a more positive way. In fact, sharp punishments, stringent security, and denial of services that comprise the pipeline to prison cripple attempts to create a positive school social climate. Additionally, because excessive discipline results in removal from class or school and students missed instructional time, it has a negative impact on student performance during standardized testing.
The purpose of this instructional unit is to deepen my students' understanding of the harsh realities of the school-to-prison pipeline construct and teach them to apply principles of activism and policy making to support a dismantling of this system. The goal is to help students to become aware of the pitfalls that exist within their own schools that could ultimately lead them down a path to incarceration and to show them how to avoid those pitfalls and how to overcome adversity and become a voice of support for other marginalized members of their school and community.
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