The school-to-prison pipeline is a national issue that continues to impact students, specifically students of color. With the increase in police presence in schools as school resource officers (SROs), there is more direct access to the pipeline, increasing the number of suspensions and arrests. According to a report by the American Bar Association, Black students are 2.2 times as likely to receive a referral to law enforcement or be subject to a school-related arrest as white students. There remains a large discrepancy between students of color and their white peers in terms of discipline and treatment.
Within the country in recent years, there is an increase in police presence, especially in schools. This further fuels the problem, leading to an even larger gap between student needs and administration. Instead of working with students on how to manage the problem or understanding what the problem is, it worsens the situation itself, leading to increased consequences, such as suspension or expulsion. Specifically, students of color can be labeled with a learning disability if they are considered disruptive in class and are more than twice as likely to be suspended than other students without a disability according to the Virginia Law Review. Other alternatives are not considered when managing students with behavioral challenges, such as restorative justice or other educational programs to inform employees of best practices in working with students.
I have seen this throughout my experience in schools, both attending and working in them. Students of color, specifically Black students, are seen as problematic and aggressive and automatically given detention or other types of punishment. Administrators are not listening and understanding the inherent problem and assume the worst or eliminate the disruption altogether.
[image_caption]Sydney Carlin[/image_caption]
Sydney Carlin is a social work graduate student at the University of St. Thomas.
“Students of color, specifically Black students, are seen as problematic and aggressive and automatically given detention or other types of punishment.” If that is true, then the school administration is racist. And their response, as in St. Paul for example, has been just as racist by withholding punishment of any kind for Black students who break the rules. Removing police officers from the halls has been counterproductive to the safety of all students to the point where families with options are pulling their kids out of those schools.
As a social work graduate, and as an Asian person in particular, you should have learned that this society would be a more fair and equitable place if people’s fate was determined by their behavior alone and that it not be filtered by what they look like. Racist policies that disproportionately affected Black people aren’t corrected by other racist policies that affect everyone. Stow your race-based solutions and society will better off. More money for more social workers is not the solution. Establishing rules and strict consequences for behavior and enforcing them regardless of race is the solution.
“Racist policies that disproportionately affected Black people aren’t corrected by other racist policies that affect everyone. Stow your race-based solutions and society will better off.”
Where did the author suggest race-based solutions? Perhaps rather than projecting on others, you should stow your own preconceptions.
Need to teach the basics of education reading, writing, math and problem solving in every school district. When you have a 25% dropout rate on top of 50% of graduates not being proficient in the basics of education in Mpls, you have limited opportunities as a young adult.
“Black students are 2.2 times as likely to receive a referral to law enforcement or be subject to a school-related arrest as white students.”
Some weekday afternoon, say around 3:30, ride the number 6 bus from downtown Minneapolis to Edina. Then do the same on the number 5 bus from downtown through North Minneapolis and on to Brooklyn Center. Then take a moment to compare and contrast what you just experienced and you will easily see EXACTLY the root causes of that statistical “inequity”. For twenty-five years I rode that bus and the things I heard and saw. I spent years working with homeless and at-risk youth in Minneapolis and not one of them behaved like the kids on the 5 bus.