Brenda Reyes

School to Prison Pipeline

The school to prison pipeline is a phenomenon wherein students are funneled out of public schools and into the hands of the criminal justice system. In The School- to - Prison Pipeline.  “Structuring Legal Reform," is states that this issue is a result of the failure of educational institutions meeting the educational and social development needs in lower socioeconomic areas. With inadequate educational services such as: 

1. overcrowding
2. racially and socioeconomically isolated environments (discrimination, red zoning),
3. lack of effective teacher and school leaders with proper training 
4. insufficient funds for additional support such as: counselor, special ed, therapists

The youth that are most effected by this issue are students of lower SES, students or color, students of disability and students of sexual minorities. Many of theses children would benefit from educational and counseling services but instead they are isolated, punished and pushed out of the educational system

With alarming facts like these makes you wonder what educational institutions are really doing to help our minority students.

1. black students are three times more likely to be suspended compared to white counterparts
2. twenty percent of middle school suspensions are minorities
3. 2011-2013 3.45 million students were suspended at least once and 130,000 students were expelled during this time period

The reason I choice this issue was because one day I want to become a teacher and I would like to best prepare myself when I do. This is a potential issue I will encounter in my teacher career. Not only that I want to be the most inclusive teacher I can be. I want to be that teacher you can go to whenever you need to talk or even just hangout. I believe that schools are a place for growth and security not a place student should feel timid about.

Another reason I choose this topic was because growing up, my mother decided to take me to school out of my district to what she told me were the "better schools." I always went to school outside of my district and I never understood why until I got older and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 18. When I came to Los Angeles I met a lot of people who hadn't graduated high school. From where I came from it was a big deal if you didn't graduate, everyone in school would know you didn't graduate and would stigmatize and label you silently. This was the complete opposite to LA, I met countless people who hadn't graduated high school and it was almost a normal occurrence. This got me thinking about the way I grew up, compared to the student in Los Angeles. The school I attended was predominately whites and we had many available resources to us all the time. We had mentors and teacher aids that would help motivate us to finish work and do good in school. This is not the case in schools in Los Angles, where the diversity is very wide and the resources and support available are slim. Again of course, only depends on what area of Los Angeles you went to school in. This made it click in my head that schools are not equal!!! 

This civic engagement project was made for us to approach our community in a helpful way.There can be many facets to it, and it can be very board but as long as it is helping the community in a specific problem they are having; in some shape or form it is considered civic engagement. My civic engagement was to go out and inform my community of an issue that is affect our future citizens and society. Civic engagement can be describe as “doing (self-efficacy) becoming (participation) and engaging (advocacy), as stated by Timothy Ball.

I talked to fellow Los Angeles Unified School District students and asked them if and facets of the school to prison pipeline ever affected their experience in school.

This is Shareen Gamez and what she expressed about her experience in school:

"My school was in South Central and my assigned counselor had to many students to handle. She was also African American which was surprising to me because she didn't take the time to mediate situations, she would automatically send both parties to admin to be dealt with. She did favor athletes compared to most students, it felt like. I had an incident at school were a teacher grabbed me by the ear and said "I'm going to discipline you since you don't get disciplined at home." This was extremely shocking to me because I knew that teachers weren't allowed to do this. Most of the teachers at the school never wanted to work out classroom problems instead they just sent you to the office and label you a troublemaker. The teacher also belittled us students because we are only kids. I stand with making a change in schools to become more equal, we need it for our future!"

After stating the statistics to Ivana Ezerol here is what she had to say:

"It's sad that this is happening in school. I have never personally experienced it going to Van Nyus High school. I did see a police officer when senior came around but I never knew anyone personally affected by this. But I can see what you mean. Here at this school this students decide to act silly because they are unable to express how they really feel! Luckily our school is trying to work out conflicts by talking it out. I think we are going a step further!"

This is Heleodoro Sanchez and this is what he had to say about his schooling experience:

" I got suspended for wearing a shirt with Popeyes decorated in sequins and jewels, apparently it school appropriate.  I got suspended for being brown. It's crazy that even our own people sometimes go against us instead of helping us. The system is messed up! Even in middle school I got a ticket from a cop that is my own race because I was late to school. But the white and Armenian students in front of me only got a tardy slip. Out of all the students there this cop decided to only give me a ticket."

Resources

Kim, Catherine Y. Losen, Daniel J & Hewitt, Damon T. The School- to - Prison Pipeline. “ Structuring Legal Reform” New York. New York University Press. 2010. 

Ball, Timothy C., et al. “Civic Engagement and a Communication Research Agenda.” Communication Education, vol. 65, no. 4, Oct. 2016, pp. 490–492. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/03634523.2016.1206658.

"ACLU."American Civil Liberties Union. 2018. https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline/school-prison-pipeline-infographic.

Creating Safe Parks (Yazmin Villar)

Creating safe parks in our community

What is civic engagement?

• "Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes." https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/ref/college/collegespecial2/coll_aascu_defi.html?pagewanted=all
• "Civic engagement includes both paid and unpaid forms of political activism, environmentalism, and community and national service."                     
• https://youth.gov/youth-topics/civic-engagement-and-volunteering

             My own definition

• Civic engagement to me means engaging with your community and finding the problem that is going on. It means hearing opinions and looking for resources in how to make a change. It also means seeing how the change that one is making is going to benefit the residents in the community. 

Not having enough safe parks in my neighborhood is an issue that directly affects me because I work with children and I see how not having access to a park can be problematic. It can become an issue in the sense that children are not getting enough leisure time, physical activity, and are not socializing as much. With these being the factors there are more factors that can be created within time.

    I chose this issue because I live in a low socioeconomic community in where there is only about  4 local parks. Not only is there a small amount of parks in my neighborhood, but they are not accessible for children. They are not accessible for children because the majority of the times the parks are surrounded by substance abuse users or people who are homeless. There is not enough funding so there is no staff that can monitor the park or create activities for the children and youth. Having safety issues, makes it hard for a parent to take their children to the park or even letting them go on their own. The parks that are in my neighborhood are pretty much walking distance to the locals, but that is not the issue, it is the safety that lacks.

    Another issue about the parks in my community is that the ones that are considered to be safe, are not accessible to some of the families due to the fees that they charge. A lot of the times, the recreational activities that are available for the kids, do not work with the parents schedule because they have to work. Some of the times, depending on the sport that a child is in, requires them to buy a uniform. Having to buy uniforms or other materials can increase stress to parents if they are already having a difficult time financially. A lot of the times, these children are coming from a single-headed household, so they do not have a lot of financial support. In the article, “The Disappearing Youth Discount: Does It Matter?”, they talk about how there are not enough opportunities for leisure for the youth and how having only one parent in the household pays a big part in their life too.  They mentioned, “In 2010, 23 percent of children lived in female-headed families, but the table shows that children in such families accounted for 53.5 percent of all children” (73). This shows that a lot of the youth growing in a low socio-economic area are living with only one parent, which shows that there is not enough leisure time for the child.

Dealing with the lack of resources plays a big part on the child’s development. It can create many unfortunate decision making for the child. A child or  youth who does not have any parental support, mentors, or a park to play in can lead to many consequences down the road. For instance, it can lead to joining a gang, becoming pregnant, or becoming a drug user. All of these factors are possible depending on how one’s lifestyle is. One may try to prevent joining a gang, but it can become difficult when that is the only support network that they are getting. In the article “Crime, Physical Activity and Outdoor Recreation Among Latino Adolescents in Chicago” they mention how a lot of the times children are not safe in their local parks or at their school grounds at night even if they are not part of any gang. Many of the times there can be gangs that intimidate others or they can be having an altercation with other gangs. There is no space for safety for the children that are non-gang members. On their study they found, “Results confirmed the hypothesis that Latino adolescents who expressed greater fear of crime also reported engaging in significantly less PA (physical activity) and outdoor recreation” (pg 543). Overall, safety is an issue and it is something that needs to be addressed. The lack of safe parks results in children not getting enough physical activity and are prone to look for other leisure activities. If there is nothing for them to do they are prone to hang out with the wrong crowd.

Creating parks is important for a community for many reasons. One reason would be that there is a place where the communities citizens could gather around and interact with each other. It is also a place where children could be involved in physical activities and be in shape. Parks can also beautify a community by all of the greenery it would have to offer. There should be a change in the community in having more parks and also making sure the parks are maintained clean and safe. There are two very small parks in the community but it seems as if people do not really go to the parks, so it may mean that there is something missing. Sometimes the reason for the people living in the community won’t attend the parks is because they believe the parks are not very safe.

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I agree with you 100% because not only will it bring the community closer, but it will also bring families together. It’ll keep kids away from violence, and keep them focused on the sports and activities at the recreational centers.

Angelita Moreno

Immigration 

"La Bestia"

  A social issue that’s is happening today would be Immigration, about a few weeks we had a migrant caravan coming from Honduras into Guatemala on to Mexico to get to the United States border. Up till today’s day we still thousands of people, families with children, new born babies, elderly people in wheel chairs, etc. walking day and night for a better life. According to The New York Times, “The Migrant Caravan: What to Know About the Thousands Traveling North” by Annie Correal and Megan Specia mention in their article that the people in the caravan have spent nights in churches, camps, and schools washing their clothes in rivers as well as relying on donations from locals. In this caravan we have about 7,000 people and an estimate of 2,300 children reported the United Nations refugee although the Mexican government has estimated about 3,600 participants. The numbers started decreasing due to people getting sick, injured, exhaustion, and some just realize that they couldn’t continue anymore. 

Jorge Ramos a Mexican American journalist interviewed a reporter by the name of Pedro Ultreras who did a report on “The Bestia” El tren que transporta a miles de migrantes” who traveled with thousands of immigrants on the Bestia which is a train that transports immigrants from one place to another. These trains usually depart in within three to four days. Thousands of immigrants walk the train tracks gather in groups and start filling up the top of the train which can be dangerous as soon as the train takes off there has been incidents where people fall of the train and lose their lives. Pedro interviewed a 22 year old women with Guatemala origins carrying her four month baby and asked her “where was she going?” she then responded and said, “to the united states for necessity." 

Melissa M: This issue hasn't Immediately personally affected me. All my family was born here my parents were born in Mexico but they were able to get their citizenship. I have a cousin that came to the United States and lived up North. So when I hear about this stuff it reminds me of him. His way of thinking was the further he was away from the border the safer he felt. 

Britney R: My thoughts on Immigration and those who come to the United States for a better life style are seen as criminals. Both my parents are undocumented and I'm able to see their struggle how they work hard to support the family and not getting paid enough.

Lulu Q: It hasn't affected me, but it personally hurts me to see all these people suffering and having to hear stories of people getting kidnapped for trafficking when there dream is to make it to the United States.  I don't know what type of conditions they are living in that has made them come this far and have to suffer risking their lives. I  believe that if the US occupied that country  they should help them by staying their and provide them with resources such as giving them food and clothing.

The reason why I selected this topic is because some of my family can relate to it. A few of my uncles and aunts including my parents are immigrants who crossed the border for a better living condition and opportunities in the United States. My family is from Sonora Mexico which is considered Baja California. Their journey to the united states based on stories were challenging and risky at the same time. Having to hide from the border patrol so that they wouldn’t get caught. Having to walk miles to get to where the coyote had to meet them up. Not being able to sleep for a couple of days because they were scared and they wanted to be aware of what was happening around them. After reading and hearing about the migrant caravan reminded me of the stories my family members shared when they were about to cross to the United States. Although it doesn’t affect me personally since I’m a citizen, but it does to my parents I still feel affected by the issue. I interviewed friends and co-works and asked if they were affected by this social issue and their thoughts for the most part they were not affected but they had stories of family members that were affected.

Work Cited

Correal, Annie, and Megan Specia . “The Migrant Caravan: What to Know About the         Thousands Traveling North.” 26 Oct. 2018.

Noticias, Univision. “Conoce a ‘La Bestia’, El Tren Que Transporta a Miles De Migrantes.”                  YouTube, YouTube, 27 July 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUmB2eAmnr4.